Nationally-renowned singer/songwriter and Indigenous Rights Activist Lyla June Johnston, of Taos, New Mexico, will headline Brattleboro’s new Fantastic Wantastiquet Festival in a gala keynote gathering at the Latchis Theatre at 2 p.m., on Saturday, September 16.

“Lyla June’s presence here heralds a call to people of all Nations, particularly First Nation/Indigenous peoples, to converge on the Wantastiquet region,” said John Wilmerding, Festival organizer.

Wilmerding first conceived of Fantastic Wantastiquet in 2015 as a plan to bring the area’s arts and cultural offerings under one marketing banner. “I knew it would elevate and transform us and enhance our relationship with these lands,” he said. The name of the Festival in effect recovers and re-claims the original name of the West River — ‘Wantastiquet’ – which translates as ‘River leading to the West.’

The performance dovetails with a successful effort to have the Town of Brattleboro observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day this year instead of Columbus Day.

“This has deepened the Festival’s emphasis on these peoples and lands,” he said. “It’s enabled us to choose new themes and content for the Festival. However, we are not organizing the Indigenous Peoples Day events. Those are being created by indigenous folks who live locally.”

The official themes announced for this first year of Fantastic Wantastiquet are ‘Celebrating People and Place’, the local rivers (especially Wantastiquet and Connecticut), the ‘Fall Foliage’ and the other natural beauty found in our area, and ‘The Better Angels of Our Nature’, which is a quote from Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address.

“Lyla June, however, carries her own themes with her, especially the central theme of her most popular song, ‘All Nations Rise’”, said Wilmerding. The performing artist was responsible for helping indigenous and other peoples to rally last year near Standing Rock, ND, to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline, and also at a subsequent Unity Rally near the Black Hills of South Dakota. Other special guests will be present, many of them traveling from afar, as excitement in Brattleboro grows for our first Indigenous Peoples Day activities in early October.

The Latchis program, planned for 2:00 on Saturday, September 16, will be ‘admission-by-donation’ with a suggested amount of $10 but a ‘no one turned away’ policy as well. Proceeds will go to benefit charities benefitting indigenous peoples, especially youth suicide prevention and womens’ issues.

For more information about this topic, contact John Wilmerding at 802-254-2826 or email at FWF@myfairpoint.net