Indigenous Voices Fund 2025 Recipients

We’re overjoyed to introduce and congratulate the five grant recipients in our 3rd Annual Indigenous Voices Fund Program! We look forward to following along as their projects come to life.

Gin Sexsmith will use this grant to record and release an EP titled ‘Gin’ with Juno-award winning producer, song-writer, mixer and engineer, Hill Kourkoutis. “I plan to create music that punches people right in the gut,” she says. “I think my purpose in life is to make people feel.”

Funding will help support Scott Maracle’s efforts to create interest in his work in Europe by traveling to Kraków, Poland, where he has been invited to exhibit at the Institute of American Studies and Polish Diaspora at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland. Scott will present an artist talk and exhibition of his photographic images exploring “how we once lived with nature and how the impacts of beliefs of others reshaped our Indigenous world.”

Jennifer E. Brant – Yakothehtón:ni, will use her grant to record (with Kanyen’kehá:ka musicians and artists from Kenhtè:ke) and release 4 new songs online and on radio, including a cover by Willie Nelson translated into Kanyen’kéha language.

Funding will enable Oronhyathe Green to purchase several pieces of new equipment to improve sound in both performance and recording settings, opening the door to new audiences and creative opportunities, including recording his new 6-song album.

The program will support Sculptor Steven Loney as he carves a stone sculpture “live” in public at the 2026 Rockhound Gemboree, Canada’s largest gem and mineral show, located in Bancroft, Ontario. Through his carving demos, Steven will share First Nations culture for Indigenous and non-Indigenous members of the public. Upon completion, the sculpture will be on permanent public display in the town of Bancroft.

We are grateful to all those who are helping to bring these projects to life:

– Elderberry Fund (Sarah & David), our Indigenous Voices Fund donor, for making this unique and important program possible;
– Sandbanks Community Church, which donated $500 from their August Read for Reconciliation Book Club event; and
– Community members who believe in the power of storytelling to transform lives.

Our sincere thanks also goes to the panel of Indigenous artists who formed the 2025 Peer Assessment Committee, and to all of the applicants. For more information on the Indigenous Voices Fund, please visit countyarts.ca/indigenous-voices-fund.