Presented by Niagara Parks, & Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority
August 12–16, 2025 | Niagara, Ontario
Niagara Parks and Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority (NPCA), in collaboration with Michele-Elise Burnett of Kakekalanicks Indigenous Consulting, and Corrina Bonshek & Collaborators, proudly present Song to the Waters, a powerful week-long celebration and festival of Indigenous music, stories, culture, and ancestral knowledge centered around our shared responsibility to water.
Taking place August 12–16 at venues including Ball’s Falls Conservation Area (NPCA) and Queenston Heights Park (Niagara Parks), Song to the Waters is a free, multi-event, immersive musical and cultural experience featuring Indigenous artists, knowledge keepers, and Elders from Canada, Australia, and Aotearoa (New Zealand). Rooted in the teachings of water as life, this event honours the voices of the land and calls participants and audiences to listen, reflect, and act in celebration and conservation of the natural world.
Inspired by Māori, Mirning, Aboriginal Australia, Inuit songs, and local Indigenous knowledge systems, Song to the Waters explores our human connection to water through a variety of cultural lenses and weaves ancestral voices and traditional stories and songs with strings, gongs, electronics, and contemporary orchestration. The result is a deeply moving and powerful sensory performance experience—layering sound and light installations with urgent messages of water stewardship, climate care and protection of our ecosystems. This week-long program promotes messages of conservation from a range of cultural perspectives.
Indigenous artists who have a deep connection to water are the drivers of this work.
Bunna Lawrie (AUS) is a whale songman and Elder of the Mirning people of the Great Australian Bight. Bunna is a musician-activist who has collaborated with Greenpeace and other initiatives to raise awareness around whale conservation on his Country. The name ‘Mirning’ means ‘listen, learn, observe and understand for wisdom and knowledge’.
As Bunna says, “The sea and mother earth are family to us. We are the children. They feed us, bring the rain, quenches our thirst. Music is healing. The sea is healing. Mother earth is healing. We share that with our music.”
Whaia Sonic Weaver (NZ/AUS) is an exponent of Māori women’s call ‘karanga’ and a member of the EarthRise Collective, Wisdom Keepers Delegation, and Oceanic Global’s board. She vocalises whalesong calls as part of her music.
Inuit throat singers, Lydia Eytok and Nina Segalowitz (CAN) carry songs and stories from their ancestral lineage where humans and whales sustainably co-existed for centuries. They are exponents of ‘katajjaq’, an Inuit women’s vocal style that imitates elements of nature.
Local, award-winning Strong Water Singers will open the Song to the Waters shows on August 15 and 16 in a powerful expression of unity, sharing the stage with Song to the Waters performers in a traditional call-and-response that echoes the voices of our ancestors. This musical bridge carries a message that transcends borders: water connects us all. There are no boundaries when it comes to climate change or in our shared responsibility to protect the sacred waters that give life. In collaboration with Māori, Inuit, and Indigenous guests, the performers will weave their cultures into one unified heartbeat — honouring the Earth and the next seven generations, and beyond.
Water is life. Let us gather together in gratitude and guardianship.
Featured Artists & Voices Include
- Bunna Lawrie – Mirning Whale Songman & Elder (Australia)
- WHAIA Sonic Weaver – Māori vocalist and water protector (Aotearoa)
- Lydia Etok & Nina Segalowitz – Inuit throat singers (Nunavik / Northwest Territories)
- Strong Water Singers – Award-winning local Indigenous women’s hand-drumming group (Niagara)
- Elder Jackie Labonte – Knowledge Keeper and community leader (Mohawk)
- Professor Sherri Vansickle – Brock University - Indigenous Educational Studies Program
Festival Workshop, Performance & Cultural Exchange Event Schedule
August 12–16, 2025
The week-long festival takes place across sites between Niagara Parks and the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, featuring Indigenous-led workshops, storytelling, cultural exchange, and land-based experiences.
Highlights include:
Tuesday, August 12 – Ball’s Falls Conservation Area, NPCA
- 7:00 – 9:00 PM - Reawakening: Fireside Song, Stories and Stargazing
- with Māori Elder Bunna Lawrie
Wednesday, August 13 - Ball’s Falls Conservation Area, NPCA
- 1:00 – 3:00 PM - Water Custodianship Sharing Circle
- 6:00 – 8:00 PM - Song to the Waters: Global Drum Circle
Friday, August 15 - Queenston Heights Park, Niagara Parks
- 6:00 pm - Kids’ Illumination Art Workshop
- 7:30 pm - Song to the Waters Concert Performance
Saturday, August 16 – Queenston Heights Park, Niagara Parks
- All day - Indigenous Artisan Market
- 1:30 – 2:30 PM - Māori Song & Cultural Workshop with Whaia Sonic Weaver
- 4:00 – 5:00 PM - Katajjaq Inuit Throat Singing & Culture Workshop With Lydia Etok & Nina Sealowitz
- 6:00 – 7:00 PM - Kids’ Illumination Art Workshop
- 7:30 PM – Song to the Waters Concert Performance
For all activities and performances:
Free Admission | All Ages Welcome
Bring your own picnic blanket or lawn chair.
These offerings are rooted in ancestral knowledge and shared with respect, inviting all to participate in meaningful moments of reflection, learning, and connection to the sacred waters.
A Deep Commitment
Song to the Waters is an intercultural, Indigenous-led project dedicated to fostering global conversations on water protection, cultural exchange, and environmental justice. Niagara Parks and the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority are proud to host this gathering, which brings together powerful voices, soundscapes, and stories that uplift the knowledge of Indigenous Peoples and inspire collective responsibility.
For more information, registration, and full event schedule:
niagaraparks.com | www.npca.ca/events
Acknowledgements
This performance of Song to the Waters is supported by Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des Arts du Canada: Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec, and Conseil des Arts de Montréal, the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body, and Australian Government Regional Arts Fund, which supports the arts in regional and remote Australia.
Niagara support provided by Niagara Parks and Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority.
This work builds upon Song to the Ocean/Earth, which were co-commissioned by City of Gold Coast, Bleach*Festival and the Queensland Government through the Regional Arts Development Fund and the Office of the Commonwealth Games and other funding sources, Fraser Coast Tourism & Events and Fraser Coast Regional Council, with assistance of the Australian Government through the Festivals Australia program and the Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF), a partnership between the Queensland Government and Fraser Coast Regional Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.
Corrina Bonshek & Collaborators is supported by the City of Gold Coast.
About Niagara Parks
Since its establishment in 1885, Niagara Parks has remained a self-financed agency of the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming, entrusted to preserve and protect the land surrounding Niagara Falls and the Niagara River. Today, Niagara Parks boasts gardens, a horticulture school, recreation, golf courses, restaurants, heritage and historic sites, gift shops and, of course, Niagara Falls. In short, natural landscapes, history, family fun, hiking, culinary delights, attractions and adventure.
About Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority
As a community-based natural resource management agency, the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority envisions a healthy and vibrant natural environment with shared greenspace and clean water for all. NPCA’s work supports the conservation, enhancement, and sustainability of healthy watersheds with programs and services that focus on drinking water source protection, flood and hazard management, ecosystem restoration, community stewardship, education, and land management.
NPCA is the caretaker of 43 conservation areas within the Niagara Peninsula watershed held in public trust for recreation, heritage preservation, conservation, and education. These natural and shared greenspaces marry nature, culture, and adventure to create limitless opportunities for discovery.
Media Inquiries & Interviews
For Niagara Host Organizations:
Niagara Parks:
Katy Wassenaar, Senior Manager, Public Affairs
905.356.2241 ext. 2224
Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority:
Erika Navarro, Supervisor, Communications and Public Relations
905.788.3135 ext. 263
For Corrina Bonshek & Collaborators:
Australia: Greta Kelly - gretackelly@gmail.com - +61 422 588 693
Canada : France Gaignard - france@francegaignard.com - +1 514 616-7705