Edmonton Folk Music Festival’s Nikamowin programming has become one of the festival’s highlights in recent years, celebrating First Nations, Métis, and Inuit artists throughout the four-day festival.
At the heart of the programming stands a tipi, 25 feet in diameter and nearly 40 feet tall, that serves as a venue for ceremony, cultural teachings and conversations led by Indigenous Elders, Knowledge Keepers and performing artists.
The tipi’s construction was led by Ekti Margaret Cardinal, an Indigenous Elder and Knowledge Keeper from Saddle Lake Cree Nation. Over the last five decades, Cardinal has established herself as a respected tipi-maker, educator, and cultural ambassador, carrying forward teachings passed down through generations.
Cardinal’s craftsmanship carries forward generations of knowledge and tradition. Her formal introduction to tipi-making came in 1975, when Saddle Lake Cree Nation commissioned her family to make 41 tipis to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the signing of Treaty Six. Alongside her parents and two sisters, the family spent three months constructing the tipis by hand.
“Every tipi has 39 holes to lace the tipi together, all hand done,” Cardinal says. “39 times 41 tipis. You can imagine how much work that was all by hand.”
Guided by her family, Cardinal learned not only the practical skills involved in tipi-making, but also the tipi’s teachings and cultural significance.
“Our culture is an oral and tactile language,” Cardinal explains. “Like my dad always said, ‘I have to teach you this because you need to pass this on.’”
Much of Cardinal’s life has been dedicated to preserving and sharing the teachings of traditional Cree culture. In 2006, Cardinal participated in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., representing Alberta’s culture through her tipis, tents, and dolls. Two of her tipis are currently part of Fort Edmonton Park’s Indigenous Peoples’ Experience programming.
Beyond her renowned craftsmanship, Cardinal’s role as Elder and Knowledge Keeper allows her to share her insight in many other ways. She was a longtime instructor in Northern Lakes College’s Aboriginal Arts program, and remains the longest-serving member of the Regional Environmental Action Committee (REAC). She’s also the “Resident Kokoom” at Young Indigenous Women’s Circle of Leadership gatherings each year.
For Cardinal, the Edmonton Folk Music Festival represents not only a continuation of her work, but also a part of the area’s long tradition of gathering, connection and community.
“The celebration of meeting together [with] family and friends has always been here, long before Edmonton Folk,” she notes.
She’s also looking forward to reconnecting with the festival’s vibrant community of artists and musicians. “As a community, we support each other. We encourage each other,” she said.
Cardinal is also grateful for the festival’s growing inclusion of Indigenous artists and Elders. Through her tipi, she looks forward to creating a welcoming space where visitors can learn about its teachings, ask questions, and engage in cultural exchange.
“It’s important cultural information that needs to be passed along,” she explains. “It’s part of the history of the land. It’s part of the history of where we are.”
Learn more about Edmonton Folk Music Festival’s Nikamowin Programming here.
