Canadian Indigenous artist Iskwe (pronounced Iss-kway) is coming next month to Elliot Lake. She'll be here to perform a week before Christmas Eve.
ElliotLakeToday caught up with her this week, in Montreal.
The Native singer, songwriter and artist was born Meghan Meisters in Winnipeg in 1981. She is part Metis Cree on one side, part Irish on the other.
She began her career as a young Canadian artist with no particular reference to her aboriginal roots but by the time she reached her teens, the young woman from Winnipeg wanted to learn more about her Cree heritage.
Iskwe, short for "waseskwan iskwew" means "blue sky woman"
During her 20 year career, she's become an established alt electronic pop singer who embeds the brutal hard truths about non-Indigenous Canadian's treatment of their Indigenous brothers and sisters, into her performances and recordings.
She'll be in town for one show at the Collins Hall on Dec. 17 at 7 p.m.
Most performers have suffered a career hiatus during the long period of the pandemic.
Performances were thwarted in early 2020 in virtually all live entertainment venues.
Now, Iskwe will be among the first live artists to visit Elliot Lake during the fourth wave of COVID-19.
What does a singer do when life presents a roadblock?
"I wrote and recorded an album. I recorded a second album with Tom Wilson as part of our side project that we do together," she said. "I did a month-long residency at Stanford University where I was building a performance piece that was then executed and launched there during the 2020-21 concert season."
Iskwe said she took some months off and, when it came time to re-start, things seemed to restart quite quickly.
"It was a bit of a shock but also fantastic because I was working," she said.
What can the audience expect at the Collins Hall next month?
For me, art is always in the eye of the beholder. I can't magically shift people or change people.
It's a matter of what people are interested in. This concert will be a beautiful version of the shows that we do. It's definitely going to be more intimate, more of a story-telling exchange.
So I'll share stories of the songs. It'll be nice in that way in that folks will get to know me a bit better and know my music a bit better.
My music is available everywhere on the internet that you find music. So whatever platform that you use, Spotify, Apple, Soundcloud, whatever folks use. And then I encourage people to come and hang out with me online.
I'm most active on my Instagram. That's where I list all my contacts and stuff coming up. But also it's really where you can come to hang out with me directly.
For more information and tickets, go to https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/iskwe-from-the-stars-tour-tickets-205686803767