GPRC hosts Juno nominee at student welcome event

September 19, 2019

GPRC’s Circle of Indigenous Students is hosting Juno-nominated Indigenous artist Kelly Fraser at its annual Student Welcome Celebration.

The event held Thursday, September 25, 2019 in the Douglas J. Cardinal Performing Arts Centre is open to the community and will also feature Krazystone Traditional Drummers and Dancers, Metis Red Feather Jiggers and Kokum Cookie. Admission is by donation to the College’s Room of Plenty, the on-campus student food bank.

“We’re really excited to be bringing Kelly Fraser to the community,” said Casey Caines, President of the Circle of Indigenous Students. “We’d love to see as many people as possible attend to celebrate with us.”

Originally from Sanikiluaq, Nunavut, Kelly Fraser has performed countless concerts across Canada, especially in the Arctic (Nunavut/Nunavik), where she is a well-known performing artist/songwriter.

Kelly was nominated in 2018 for a Juno for Indigenous Album of the Year, Indigenous Music Awards for Best Pop Album and just won the Inuk 2019 Indspire Award for her work teaching traditional Inuktitut song-writing workshops and for Inuit advocacy through music.

Kelly Fraser sings pop covers in Inuktitut, sings original EDM and pop music and also uses her traditional Inuit drum and throat singing before she starts her usual dancing and singing to pay homage on her Inuit culture.

Like many Inuit, Kelly has been through many personal struggles and she uses her pain as inspiration to make art that can positively impact other native youth. She seeks to spread her messages of joy, healing, and cultural pride through a blend of traditional Inuit music and modern production.

Her sophomore album is influenced by contemporary pop, EDM, and hip-hop. Kelly sings and raps in both English and Inuktitut, seamlessly blending the two languages with her powerful, insightful, and politically-relevant lyrics.

Besides her busy schedule as a recording and performing artist, Kelly teaches Inuktitut language lessons, does cultural and motivational speaking, teaches songwriting, and helps to organize Nunavut Hitmakerz, a project which aims to give underprivileged Nunavummiut youth opportunities to learn creative expression and technical skills.

“We are partnered with the local school boards to bring students from across the region to the event, so it’s a really inclusive celebration of Indigenous culture and students,” said Caines

More information about the event can be found on the GPRC website at gprc.ab.ca.

About GPRC
GPRC is a comprehensive community institution, publicly supported to provide opportunities in post-secondary education in northwestern Alberta. Established in 1966 in Grande Prairie, GPRC now includes campuses in Fairview and Grande Prairie, and learning centres in Edson, Grande Cache, Hinton and Jasper. GPRC offers a wide variety of career certificates and diplomas, pre-employment and apprenticeship trades, university transfer studies, and several opportunities for on-campus degree completion at baccalaureate and master levels through collaborations with four-year universities. For more information visit gprc.ab.ca.

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For more information, please contact:
Mark Evans
Director, Communications and Marketing
780-539-2951

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