\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
![\"Supplied](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4349386_web1_SIMA-pic.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
Supplied<\/p>\n
Rapper Big Tones performs at the Turtle Island Block Party today at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur focus is to give Indigenous and newcomer families in Winnipeg\u2019s core and North End access to the arts,\u201d says Greyeyes, who also chairs the Indigenous Music Office \u2014 a national body aimed at uplifting, empowering and strengthening Indigenous music creators, families and communities.<\/p>\n
The festival director believes mental health suffers without access to the arts, which is why the festival\u2019s cornerstone events are its free annual block parties, boasting live music, a barbecue, face-painting, a photobooth, an Indigenous marketplace and festival-run activity stations for children. Picnic tables will be set up, but families are encouraged to bring their own chairs or blankets to enjoy the outdoor concerts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI live now in South Osborne, and I can walk down the street to the Park Theatre or the Neighbour by Neighbour event at the Lord Roberts Community Centre. I want families in the North End and the core to have the same kinds of opportunities and access,\u201d says Greyeyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn those early, formative years it\u2019s even more important to have access to role models, to see people blazing trails and opening doors for others.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year, music will fill the air beginning at 2 p.m. today at the Turtle Island Neighbourhood Centre (510 King St.) and on Sunday at Central Park.<\/p>\n
At the Turtle Island show \u2014 which kicks off with a powwow demonstration by Rising Sun Pow Wow Club, Blazing Buffalo and Thunderbird Coming \u2014 guests are asked to park on King Street or Dufferin and Flora avenues.<\/p>\n
Slated to perform outdoors at Central Park are youth throat singers from the Tunngasugit Inuit Resource Centre, rapper KNG JMZ, franco-folkster Willows, country singer Brettyn Rose, fiddler Darren Lavallee, and songwriters Rhonda Head and Amanda Gendron.<\/p>\n
At 8 p.m., Celeigh Cardinal \u2014 named songwriter of the year at the 2024 Western Canadian Music Awards \u2014 will perform tracks from her discography, including the Juno-nominated LP Boundless Possibilities.<\/p>\n
Among the performers taking the stage today is 32-year-old Saskatoon rapper Anthony (Big Tones) Pasqua, who is in town for his second performance in Winnipeg over the past year following a show at last fall\u2019s BreakOut West festival \u2014 and this time, he\u2019s driving into town with a fresh track called Shine.<\/p>\n
Featuring lyrical tributes to his inspirational matriarchs \u2014 Pasqua\u2019s auntie Tracey and kookum Donna, \u201cthe sweetgrass warrior,\u201d who died in 2024 \u2014 Big Tones says Shine is about \u201cletting yourself be who you are, continuing to live a good life, surrounding yourself with good people and becoming the best version of yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
He performs today at 6 p.m., playing a set right before Long Plain First Nation songwriter and filmmaker Aaron Peters.<\/p>\n
For a full block party schedule and additional information about Sakihiwe\u2019s year-round programming, visit sakihiwe.ca.<\/p>\n
winnipegfreepress.com\/benwaldman<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Ben Waldman Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University\u2019s (now Toronto Metropolitan University\u2019s) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Reporter
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n