A Tribe Called Red pulls out of human rights museum performance

A Tribe Called Red will no longer be performing at the new Canadian Museum for Human Rights. DJ Shrub (centre) has recently been replaced by 2oolman. Photo: Handout

Electronic music group A Tribe Called Red has pulled out of a scheduled performance at Winnipeg’s Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) on the eve of its grand opening because the museum will not describe Canada’s treatment of Indigenous people as “genocide.”

“Unfortunately, we feel it was necessary to cancel our performance because of the museum’s misrepresentation and downplay of the genocide that was experienced by Indigenous people in Canada by refusing to name it genocide. Until this is rectified, we’ll support the museum from a distance,” said a statement from the group.

CBC News reported in July that the museum has chosen not to refer to Canada’s historical treatment of aboriginal people — including the residential school system and the Sixties Scoop — as “genocide” because they don’t feel they’re in a position to make that call.

“We are not a court. We are not an academic institution. We rely on those sources for information to inform our exhibits,” Angela Cassie, a spokesperson for the museum, told CBC News.

A Tribe Called Red had been slated to perform on Saturday as part of “RightsFest” to mark the museum’s opening. Other scheduled performers include Bruce Cockburn, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Shad.

“The CMHR understands the group has elected not to participate over concern around the way Indigenous issues are presented in the Museum,” the museum said in a statement. “We know that building dialogue and earning trust is a long-term process, and we hope this will again be an opportunity for respectful conversation on issues that historically haven’t been easy to talk about.”

The museum said they’ve invited A Tribe Called Red’s members to “tour the CMHR at their convenience to experience for themselves the full breadth of exhibit content dedicated to Indigenous perspectives and issues.”

According to the museum’s website, Indigenous content can be found in each of the CMHR’s ten core galleries and development was done with “input from Elders and community members, as well as Indigenous experts, scholars, artists, curators and human rights experts.”

The three DJs who make up A Tribe Called Red are known for their activism, especially Deejay NDN (also known as Ian Campeau) who has been particularly vocal about pressuring the Washington Redskins to change their name.