Indigenous Oral Traditions & Drumming

Indigenous Oral Traditions & Drumming

Join Yessica Rivera Belsham and Grandmother Kathy Brant for Indigenous Oral Traditions & Drumming at the Tett Centre for Creativity & Learning. We thank them for sharing their gifts and stories with the community. 

Watch the FULL YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxN8nbOOQDg

Yessica Rivera Belsham

Yessica Rivera Belsham is the founder and heart of Ollin.ca, an organization which promotes growth within individuals, families, and communities in a compassionate and embracing manner with workshops, events, festivals, services and more which are all fostered in inclusion, diversity, and equity within the Kingston and Ottawa area. The common thread of all our events are focused on caring for Mother Earth, Celebrating Life, honouring our Ancestors and loved ones that have passed, holistic health, and embracing cultural diversity.

Grateful to be a part of beautiful collaborations with indigenous drumming and singing across Turtle Island, as well and grow the message of bringing together all people from all directions of the world, in community with compassion and care. Discover more at: Ollin.ca.

Grandmother Kathy Brant

Grandmother Kathy is Mohawk of the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy and has worked with Indigenous communities for close to 25 years.

“I offer these words in the spirit of this gathering. I want to acknowledge the original caretakers of this land from time immemorial, the Algonquin-Anishinaabe and Allied Nations, the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy, which includes the nearby Mohawks, and many other First Nations People who crossed these lands for sustenance, trade and survival.

To do this acknowledgement, is to recognize its longer history, predating the establishment of European Colonies. It is also to acknowledge this territory’s significance for the Indigenous Peoples who lived and continue to live upon it, a people whose practices and spiritualities were tied to the land and continue to develop in relationship to the territory and its other inhabitants today.

The Kingston Indigenous communities continue to reflect the areas Algonquin-Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee roots with also a significant Métis and Innu and Inuit community and other First Peoples from other Nations across Turtle Island who are present here today.

It is with deep humility that we acknowledge and offer our gratitude for their contributions to this community, having respect for all as we share this space now and walk side by side into the future.”

– Grandmother Kathy Brant

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