Indigenous Storyteller Showcase
Sandra Sutter
Sandra Sutter is an award winning Cree Métis recording artist, songwriter and musician who writes, records and performs in multiple genres encompassing roots music; including Native Americana, folk, country, pop, jazz and rock.
Raised in a loving non-Indigenous family, Sandra affirmed and embraced her ancestral and cultural roots later in life. Like many displaced Indigenous people, honouring her proud cultural roots is important to a woman whose birth heritage was lost through time and circumstance. Sandra’s culture influences her every step through life and she has grown into an active and passionate advocate for Indigenous traditions and rights. Her life journey in both the non-Indigenous and Indigenous worlds has given her a unique perspective and opportunity to bring people together through her songs of reconciliation.
Sandra’s 2020 Christmas Release, Aurora 12 Songs for the Season, builds on the theme of her truth and reconciliation focused 2017 release, Cluster Stars; sharing stories about the culture, history, challenges , strength, beauty and resilience of Indigenous Peoples. Aurora 12 is a mix of 8 original songs; 6 new pieces and 2 originals previously released with the Fireside A/B release in 2019, along with a few traditional Christmas songs presented in a way that only the award-winning singer-song writer can deliver.
17 Industry nominations in the last three years include wins for a 2021 SSIMA (Best Métis Artist/Group of the Year), a 2018 NAMA (Best Americana) and 2019 IMA (Best Producer/Engineer). Additional nominations include three YYC Music Awards, 1 additional IMA, a CFMA, three additional NAMA’s, two Blues and Roots radio nods, and four ISMA’s. Ms. Sutter also received an Esquao Award (Arts) from the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women, an Aboriginal Role Model of Alberta (Arts) Award and a WXN Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada Award.
One of the songs from Cluster Stars, Song of Heaven, is featured in a short film by Tito Gomez and Barb Briggs called ‘The Healing’ that Sandra debuted as an actor in. Indian in the Child, another Cluster Stars piece, is featured in a theatre production, ‘New Blood, the Dance Show’. One of Ms. Sutter’s reconciliation focused poems, She Is, is published in Sheri-D Wilson’s 2020 legacy Poetry book, YYC Pop.
Sandra is the Aboriginal Partnerships Manager for PTW Energy and sits on several Indigenous serving boards and committees across Canada. She lives and breathes the concepts that she thinks, speaks and sings about every day.
The Cluster Stars Song Book is a natural extension of my first album, Cluster Stars. It promotes a spirit of healing and reconciliation not only through the song lyrics, but also through art and photography that provides readers with a multi-dimensional platform for learning and understanding.
Thank you to Reg Crowshoe and Rose Crowshoe, who guide my work, for their teachings about the importance of creating what they refer to as ‘ethical space’, which is about creating safe spaces to communicate in.
Readers can use this book to navigate through some different aspects of Indigenous history, culture, and socio-economic realities that I share through the music of the Cluster Stars album, both past and present. Through words and language (lyrics), photographic images, colourable illustrations, and lead sheets to play the music, raders can experience and explore.
Ramsey Kunkel’s beautiful photographic images, Delree Dumont’s colourable illustrations and
newcomer Brooke Glover’s drawings demonstrate how the Cluster Stars messages exist in parallel form to the music, making them more accessible through different artistic mediums.
The beauty and strength of Indigenous Peoples is evident through the art that you will find on the pages of the Cluster Stars Song Book, and that you will re-discover within yourselves.
Proceeds from the sale of The Cluster Stars Song Book will be donated to The Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund (DWF). DWF aims to build cultural understanding and create a path toward reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.
June 19 -25, 2022
“Keeping the Circle Strong through
Language and Culture.”
AAWC Circle Presents
June 19, 2022 (Sunday)
Indigenous Variety Showcase
June 25, 2022, (Saturday)
Indigenous Handgames
Tournament
June 25, 2022, (Saturday)
National Indigenous
Family Day & POWOW
Thank you 2022 sponsors & partners
AAWC Circle
