Kwakwaka'wakw Music Bands and Artists List

The Kwakwakaʼwakw peoples have practiced sacred and secular music for thousands of years. The Kwakwakaʼwakw are a collective of twenty-five nations of the Wakashan language family who altogether form part of a larger identity comprising the Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, located in what is known today as British Columbia, Canada.

The Kwakwakaʼwakw peoples use instruments in conjunction with dance and song for the purposes of ceremony, ritual, and storytelling (see also Kwakwakaʼwakw mythology). Certain Kwakwakaʼwakw traditions include ghosts who are able to bring back the dead with their song. Love songs are also an important part of Kwakwakaʼwakw music.

A mixture of percussive instrumentation, especially log and stick, and box or hide drums, as well as rattles, whistles, and the clapper (musical instrument) create a beat while vocal expression establishes the rhythm. Instrument makers specifically design new musical instruments for each respective dance.

The Kwakʼwala word for "summer song" is baquyala, and the word for "winter song" is tsʼēʼkꞏala. The arrival of the next winter season is celebrated each year in a four-day festival of song and dance called tsetseqa, or Winter Ceremonial. Tsetseqa begins with singing the songs of those who died since the last winter season. The entire tsetseqa season is devoted to ceremony, including initiation of the young into various dancing societies.

Another very important festival involving song and dance is the potlatch (Chinook: "to give"), a Kwakwakaʼwakw tradition of sharing wealth and prestige in order to establish status and ensure witnesses remember the respective stories celebrated. Potlatches often occur during tsetseqa to announce a new initiate into one of the secret dancing societies.