Sept 27

Sons of Membertou

The Sons of Membertou were formed in 1992, when a group of elders presented a drum to Darrell and Sharon Bernard and asked them to work to re-introduce traditional music back to our community. The group started small but interest in the music and traditions had become popular quickly. The Sons of Membertou recorded an album in 1994 and released it in 1995. That album, Wapna’kik has been re-released in 2025 under the Smithsonian-Folkways label. The Sons have performed in countless festivals, powwows, concerts and gatherings across North America and Europe. They have performed for World leaders and are honoured to perform for the Lumiere Festival in Unama’ki.

Artist Project

The Sons of Membertou are a group of traditional Mi’kmaw singers from the community of Membertou. They have performed across North America and Europe over the last thirty three years. They share songs and stories of the being Mi’kmaq in Unamaki.

Lumière Arts Festival 2025 // Constellations

Lumiere Arts Festival invites artists and community members to reflect on the concept of care.

In a polarized landscape, care can lap like a brook, or pound like large waves crashing ashore. To care is to tend, to root, to rebel, to share and to endure. This year, the festival is encouraging artists to submit works rooted in solidarity, with community building as resistance, that explores the need to care for ourselves, others, and the earth, both locally and globally. The Lumiere Arts Festival makes space for joy, contemporary art, and meaningful dialogue.

Land Acknowledgement

Lumière Arts Festival, on behalf of the board, the artists, and the communities we represent, acknowledges that we work, live and play in the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people, in Unama’ki Cape Breton, who have stewarded these lands since time immemorial.

We are grateful not only for the strong and ongoing stewardship of these lands we call home, but also for the stories, music, and art that Mi’kmaq people continue to create and share, carrying ancestral voices, sacred teachings, and legacies of interconnectedness and resilience forward into the present and on to the future.

We aspire to reflect that sense of connection between past and present in our festival. We are inspired by L’nu artists to foster connection and self-reflection in our work. We will work to ensure that art is accessible, inclusive, and integrated into public spaces so that we can share our collective stories, recognizing the challenges of our past and imagining brighter futures.

We are all Treaty people.