The 2 Rivers Remix Society's Meeka Morgan loves her job

This weekend's Indigenous music festival will raise funds for Lytton evacuees

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      When Meeka Morgan picks up the phone at her home in Ashcroft, B.C., she's feeling quite relieved. The wildfires that have been devastating that area aren't burning out of control anymore.

      "It was very horrible," says Morgan, "there was just fire encroaching from all directions at one point. Looking at the evacuation-alert map, everywhere in our region was either red or yellow. And the smoke is gone--thank goodness. It doesn't look like it's turning into night at 1 pm."

      Less than an hour's drive away, though, the small town of Lytton wasn't so lucky. On June 30, after making headlines for recording the hottest-ever temperatures in Canada three days in a row, most of the village burned to the ground in a horrific blaze. The 2 Rivers Remix Society, which Morgan is artistic director of, had its office there.

      "It's our host community, our host nation, and all of the people that I work with—the directors of the society—are either from the town or the nation of Lytton. Over 50 thousand dollars of equipment we just purchased was all burnt; we lost our arts projects that we exhibit at our festivals.

      "My very close colleague's home was incinerated as well," she adds. "It's quite jarring to get that kind of news and then to see the devastation after, and then to keep going at what we're doing. But that's probably the only thing that's keeping us in a space where we can function."

      Since 2018 the 2 Rivers Remix Society has been presenting its Indigenous music festival in Lytton. Last year it managed to secure an appearance by Buffy Sainte-Marie, although the COVID-19 pandemic meant the three-day event had to be presented online.

      "We had hired Buffy even before the pandemic had started," recalls Morgan, "it was one of our dreams to have our major musical cultural icon—who is so contemporary as well, and so inspiring that way. We had wanted to bring her live, but when we came closer to the date we realized that things weren't changing, so we asked if she would instead do a personalized video, which was just incredible."

      This weekend the 2 Rivers Remix We Are Still Here! Virtual Feast Edition festival will raise funds for the Lytton evacuees. Over 30 Indigenous performers will take part, but Morgan doesn't hesitate when asked which one she's most thrilled to see.

      "For sure Lido Pimienta," she says, "she's an Afro-Indigenous Colombian, and a Polaris prize winner [from 2017]. I hadn't actually heard of her until after that time, but once I did I just couldn't believe that she hasn't been on my radar before, because I can't get enough of her. She's not trying to fit into a certain type of genre, but she is pushing the boundaries because she is bringing her Indigenous heritage, knowledge, her ways of being, into the mainstream. She challenges our western ways of hearing things, even. So when I took a look at some of the performances that she did online I was just so blown away."

      Another act Morgan is psyched about seeing this year is festival coheadliner Digging Roots, a Juno-winning blues-rock band composed of the husband and wife team of Raven Kanatakta and ShoShona Kish.

      "They've been together for quite a long time," she points out. "I even remember hearing about them over 20 years ago in musical circles, where at that time you just didn't hear very many indigenous people on the lineups at any of the bigger festivals. And so they've been real trailblazers in Indigenous contemporary music."

      Other acts taking part include Kinnie Starr, Leela Gilday, PIQSIQ, Old Soul Rebel, Murray Porter, Shawnee Kish, and Amanda Rheaume. Morgan's own group, the hip-hop/fusion trio Melawmen Collective, will perform as well, which makes the event even more special for her. Over the phone, the passion she brings to her roles as both artist and artistic director is easy to detect. It sounds like she really loves her job.

      "I do!," she asserts. "And like I said, with what happened to the town, if I didn't have this work, I would probably be feeling really lost. To be able to help get people's spirits lifted and to support our artists during this time--and not just our artists, but our production crews that are so important in our work. All those people are suffering too in the industry. So any way that we can support those people during this time is such an honour.

      "And because of the fire we've really had to shift gears and focus on our support of our village of ‘Q’əmcín, which is also known as Lytton, and so we are fundraising to support the fire evacuees, and that can be done at help.2rmx.ca. It's mainly just to remind people from everywhere about what happened and how important that community and that place is to us. The people are all displaced, but they are still there in their hearts. And they will be there again."

      The 2 Rivers Remix We Are Still Here! Virtual Feast Edition festival takes place online September 4 to 6, and you can register here.

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