Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The Sons of Membertou bookended the 2024 Smithsonian Folklife Festival’s Indigenous Voices of the Americas program, with performances in the opening ceremony as well as the final featured concert in the National Museum of the American Indian’s Potomac Atrium.
Austin Christmas, J.R. Isadore, John MacEwan, and Graham Marshall represented the Mi’kmaw musical group at the Festival, joined by dancer Maisyn Sock. It was especially significant for this group—from Unama’ki (also known as Cape Breton, on Nova Scotia’s Atlantic coast)—to perform on Canada Day, July 1, with Kirsten Hillman, ambassador of Canada to the United States, in attendance.
From this prominent stage, the Sons of Membertou shared the living story and language of Mi’kmaw people. They modeled their bedrock cultural values of sharing and mutual respect, expressed in Kepmite’tmnej or the Mi’kmaq Honour Song: Let us greatly respect our Native roots. Let us help one another.
Since the 1990s, the Sons of Membertou have been part of a vibrant resurgence of Mi’kmaq musical traditions. The updated reissue of their 1995 record, “Wapna'kik: The People of the Dawn,” is out now on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.
Editing: Ned Driscoll
Photo: Sonya Pencheva
Catalog No. CFV11732; © Smithsonian Institution, 2024
The Sons of Membertou bookended the 2024 Smithsonian Folklife Festival’s Indigenous Voices of the Americas program, with performances in the opening ceremony as well as the final featured concert in the National Museum of the American Indian’s Potomac Atrium.
Austin Christmas, J.R. Isadore, John MacEwan, and Graham Marshall represented the Mi’kmaw musical group at the Festival, joined by dancer Maisyn Sock. It was especially significant for this group—from Unama’ki (also known as Cape Breton, on Nova Scotia’s Atlantic coast)—to perform on Canada Day, July 1, with Kirsten Hillman, ambassador of Canada to the United States, in attendance.
From this prominent stage, the Sons of Membertou shared the living story and language of Mi’kmaw people. They modeled their bedrock cultural values of sharing and mutual respect, expressed in Kepmite’tmnej or the Mi’kmaq Honour Song: Let us greatly respect our Native roots. Let us help one another.
Since the 1990s, the Sons of Membertou have been part of a vibrant resurgence of Mi’kmaq musical traditions. The updated reissue of their 1995 record, “Wapna'kik: The People of the Dawn,” is out now on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.
Editing: Ned Driscoll
Photo: Sonya Pencheva
Catalog No. CFV11732; © Smithsonian Institution, 2024
![De Libertate: Sounds of Freedom and Hope from Ukraine [updated]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kBJ9Ew9WTQs/mqdefault.jpg "De Libertate: Sounds of Freedom and Hope from Ukraine [updated]
On the Fourth of July, De Libertate: Songs of Freedom and Hope from Ukraine features four groups of performing artists who express and share Ukrainian identity, tradition, and cultural resilience through the power of song. The four groups—Bozhychi, Katya Chilly, Mariya Kvitka, and Shchuka Ryba—use folk, traditional, and contemporary styles to illustrate how music unites and inspires the Ukrainian people during this pivotal moment in their history.
ACCESSIBILITY: Live real-time captioning is available for this program.")
