Miriam El Abbassi | Arts Editor
Featured Image: While on her tours across the country, visiting many remote Indigenous communities, she turned the stories she would share into songs. | Courtesy of Tribal Spirit Music
Aqua Nibii Waawaaskone, known mononymously as Aqua, is a singer, songwriter, storyteller and artist, who will be hosting a live musical performance at the Martin Family Lounge in the Accolade East Building on March 20.
Aqua is an Anishinaabe Kwe~Indigenous, and two-spirited woman of mixed ancestry (Ojibwe Métis with French and Scottish), originally from North Bay. She began as a hand drummer and hand-drum maker, leading drumming circles all across Canada. While on tour across the country visiting many remote Indigenous communities, she turned the stories she shared into songs.
This then led her to produce and release her first EP, Spirit Music, which took inspiration from the four directions and aspects of creation, represented on the medicine wheel. Aqua signed to Tribal Spirit Music where she co-produced her album, Hand Drum Stories, with thirteen tracks to honour the thirteen grandmother moons.
Aqua studied theatre arts at Algonquin and film at Humber, which allowed her to further explore the ways in which Indigenous stories can be expressed through performance art. Aqua co-created and collaborated with other Indigenous artists on a children’s theatre piece to share the creation story of Turtle Island (North America). She composed original music to score the teachings and bring to life the traditions of Indigenous people.
Aqua is currently working on her next album, while collaborating with other like-minded artists. “She is an advocate for anyone who has endured violence and adversity. She provides a safe space in her sacred circles so the community can grow together, stronger, forever as a whole.”
In 2016, Aqua had the opportunity to welcome Syrian refugee children by leading a singing and drumming workshop at the Toronto Plaza Hotel. The songs were sung in in English and Mi’kmaq, explained to the children first in Arabic by a volunteer over the beat of indigenous hand drums. Aqua performed traditional songs of welcome and healing along with Veronica Johnny, an Indigenous singer of Cree and Dene descent.
Aqua will be carrying on the centuries-old tradition of storytelling through the use of song and performance art, and showcasing it for the York student body to observe and experience.
