THUNDER BAY – Indigenous hip hop artist Dakota Bear was excited by what he saw at the Victoria Inn Hotel and Convention Centre on Thursday.
Bear, who was born in Saskatoon and now calls Vancouver home, performed during a day-long workshop where Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board students learned computer science and coding skills through Indigenous music.
“The kids have been feeling inspired and we’ve been feeling inspired as well, especially with seeing how creative that the youth have been in the communities we’ve been to,” Bear said.
“We just want to be able to continue to something that’s going to uplift them and that’s going to continue to empower them. This program is pretty unique and we’re just going to continue to do what we can to contribute and be able to help empower Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth.”
Thursday’s event is part of the “Your Voice is Power” initiative, which was founded by the charity TakingITGlobal and has been put together in partnership with Amazon Future Engineer and Amazon Music.
In the program, students remix music from artists Aysanabee, Jayli Wolf, Dakota Bear, Samian and Twin Flames, while also engaged in discussion on First Nations, Inuit and Métis experiences.
“We have students from all backgrounds participating in the program across the country, because everybody needs to learn and reflect on the Indigenous experience and important things like the Sixties Scoop and residential schools,” said Kristin Gable, who works with Amazon Future Engineer.
“Seeing young people get excited about learning is just such a powerful thing. The students are really engaged, they are getting hands-on and they are interacting with the educators.
“We’re seeing the interest and passion and that really enforces why programs like this one are important.”
Among the interested observers at Thursday’s event was Mayor Ken Boshcoff.
“I was quite inspired myself,” Boshcoff said. “I could see that the students are really picking up on everything and the intensity of their interest is palpable.
“From talking to the students and seeing them work, you can see how much they are into this, especially with the depth of the questions that they are asking.”
