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Haida artist to perform at George Ryga Festival in Summerland

Interweavings features music from Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson and Bill Henderson
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HAIDA ARTIST Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson will perform with Bill Henderson during the final performance at the George Ryga Festival later this month. (Photo submitted)

Interweavings, the final performance at this year’s Ryga Arts Festival will feature music from Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson and Bill Henderson.

The concert will be held on Saturday, Aug. 31 at Centre Stage Theatre.

Williams-Davidson, a Haida artist, activist, musician and lawyer, has won several Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, including one in 2008 for being A Keeper of Traditions.

Her latest recording, Grizzly Bear Town, was written and performed in collaboration with Bill Henderson and Claire Lawrence, two original members of The Collectors and Chilliwack.

Williams-Davidson said the album is a return to her ancestral origins.

READ ALSO: Members of Henderson family to perform at Ryga Arts Festival in Summerland

READ ALSO: COLUMN: Reflecting on George Ryga’s legacy

“Grizzly Bear Town is another name for my ancestral village of Skedans, the village of my maternal great-grandmother, Susan Williams,” she said.

The songs illustrate many aspects of Haida culture, including supernatural beings such as Cedar Sister, Landslide Lady, and Canoe Song.

“T’iis Kwaanaaya (Many Ledges) is the supernatural being of the rock cliff behind Skedans,” she said. “It was once a powerful supernatural killer whale before it became the rock cliff. In this song, Many Ledges is a metaphor for the many ascents and falls in our journey towards enlightenment.”

Lawrence, one of Canada’s top jazz producers and versatile musicians, calls Grizzly Bear Town a “mutually creative process.”

Henderson, a singer, songwriter and guitarist said, “Working with Terri-Lynn is an opportunity to do something in the realm of reconciliation. To just start working together creatively is a start.”

For the performance, the trio has doubled in size to include bassist Canadian jazz musician Jody Proznick vocalists Camille and Saffron Henderson, Bill Henderson’s daughters.

Summerland is where Henderson and Lawrence worked with playwright George Ryga on Grass and Wild Strawberries, which became a recording hit for The Collectors and a record-breaking show at the Vancouver Playhouse.

Ryga wrote his 1967 play. The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, in Summerland. The play is about the murder of a young Indigenous woman. It has been called the most influential Canadian play.

Details about the performance can be found on Williams-Davidson’s website at ravencallingproductions.ca.

Tickets are available online at rygafest.ca.

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