For her role in the ongoing revolution of uplifting Indigenous communities and their culture – using the medium of music as an agent of change, to awaken our humanity, and to help us connect – ShoShona Kish will receive the 2018 WOMEX (World Music Expo) Professional Excellence Award. The award ceremonies will be held Sunday, Oct. 28, 2018, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, on the Canary Islands of Spain.
The importance of the work of such artists, from within Indigenous communities, to change perceptions and de-construct stereotypes enacted by mainstream popular culture cannot be over-estimated, and ShoShona Kish is one of those artists: a singer, a musician, and a visionary.
SOCAN member Kish is half of the duo that co-fronts the band Digging Roots – along with her fellow member, husband Raven Kanatakta. Their musical style blends folk-rock, pop, blues, and hip-hop, and they have collaborated with musical colleagues such as Tanya Tagaq and DJ Bear Witness, of A Tribe Called Red.
On Oct. 27, 2018, the day before the awards ceremony, Kish will be interviewed by the Executive Director of Folk Alliance International, Aengus Finnan, during the WOMEX conference that precedes the awards.