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Cultural village at Penticton Peach Festival honours women

Honouring Our Women is presented by the Penticton Peach Festival’s Aboriginal Cultural Village 2013.
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Acclaimed Métis singer

Honouring Our Women is presented by the Penticton Peach Festival’s Aboriginal Cultural Village 2013.

They chose this theme for the cultural village’s Saturday performance to honour women and their respective roles in our families and communities. Traditionally women are the fabric of their communities, they are mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts and daughters. The strength of women is reflected through their families and their contribution to society and those roles are honoured and cherished.

Strong women from the Okanagan Territory have been chosen to open the event with traditional songs that belong to the people of this valley. Amber and Billy Jean Cardenas, Aimee Lezard, Darryl-Jean Paxton and Toni George are contributing members of the Okanagan Nation.

Madeline McCallum is a renowned Metis Traditional Jigger, she is also performing on Peach Festival’s main stage at Okanagan Park. Kristi Lane Sinclair and Andrea Menard, both from Vancouver, are main headliners for Saturday evening in Gyro Park.

Sinclair was raised on grunge in the backwaters of British Columbia.  The singer-songwriter’s musical roots are reflected in her sophomore album The Sea Alone. It is an intoxicating mix of grunge, folk and classical. Grunge and classical you ask? Yes, grunge and classical Sinclair growls back. In her low, hard-edged vocals, Sinclair sings about heartbreak, great loves and the sea on her album.

Growing up ocean-side in Prince Rupert, with family roots in Masset, Haida Gwaii, it is no wonder Sinclair finds healing in open waters.

“It is what I turn to when everything else turns sour” she said.

For Sinclair, the waters provide her energy and she feels it is the one thing she can constantly depend on and that is reflected in the moody The Sea Alone.

Menard, an acclaimed Métis singer, actor, writer, and messenger, is becoming an ever more creative global force. From a new collection of uplifting songs to be recorded, a repertoire of new orchestrated material, a new television series, to a screenplay taking up much of her time, the Métis songstress lends her talents to the international stage as well as to the music and film industries. The creative spark inside Menard caught fire on her third album, Sparkle, a multi-genre original work that celebrates the glittering winter and the holiday spirit.

The talented songstress’ first two award-winning albums, Simple Steps (2005) and The Velvet Devil (2002), both feature original songs written by Menard and Robert Walsh. Simple Steps, produced by Walsh, is “a little bit country, and a whole lot of folk.” It won a number of awards for its outstanding performance and production, including “Outstanding Aboriginal Artist” at the Western Canadian Music Awards.

For a full schedule of Penticton Peach Festival events visit www.peachfest.ca.