LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
If you have ever wondered what a Montreal artist, an Indigenous Music Award nominee and a CKLB broadcaster have in common, the answer can be found in Fort Simpson on Sept. 16.

Deh Cho elder Maryjane Cazon opens the 2014 Ko K'e Storytelling Festival in Fort Simpson on Sept. 17 with a traditional story of a young orphan girl. - NNSL file photo

The Ko K'e Storytelling Festival is scheduled to return to the community, featuring performers Moe Clark, Thelma Cheechoo and Dëneze Nakehk'o.

The festival is part of the Northern Arts and Cultureal Centre's (NACC) 2015-16 season and will focus this year on celebrating strong indigenous women.

The festival is slated to take place at 7 p.m. at Bompas Elementary School.

Marie Coderre, NACC's executive and artistic director, has been with the organization for four years. This is also NACC's fourth season with shows in Fort Simpson.

Coderre said the storytelling festival has existed for more than a decade.

However, in 2013 she partnered with CKLB in Yellowknife to develop a new concept for the festival and bring it to smaller communities. Thus was born the Ko K'e version, which is based on the idea of traditional storytelling around a campfire.

"This year, we decided to go with strong indigenous women as our theme. Even though there are guys who are a part of the festival, they will highlight stories surrounding women," Coderre said. "I like to pay tribute to women because they've been hiding a long, long time."

Nakehk'o will start the evening off with stories before the festival moves on to Clark and Cheechoo, who will mix music in with her storytelling. He was originally responsible for re-branding the festival Ko K'e and said a lot of the oral history passed on to indigenous people happened around a fire.

"For me, it's taking that and adding a modern twist where we're going to be on stage and it will be a bit more formalized," he said.

As for the theme, Nakehk'o addressed the issue of missing and murdered aboriginal women.

"All across the country, when it comes to indigenous people, the stories are not really good, especially for indigenous women," he said. "Indigenous women are 4.5 times more likely to go missing or be murdered than any other woman in Canada. That's pretty scary."

He said the Ko K'e Storytelling Festival gives him an opportunity to highlight the problem or missing and murdered indigenous women, as well as pay tribute to other strong indigenous women.

"I think one of the things we can do is to bring more awareness, but also to combat that (by) celebrating the women in our communities," he said. "It's really important to actually put a little more significance, time and effort into showing and celebrating the stories that have to do with women in our communities."

As for appearing on stage alongside well-known acts such as Clark and Cheechoo, Nakehk'o admitted he is a little intimidated.

"There are some pretty amazing ladies and acts up there. It's not going to be your typical Wednesday night," he said. "I'm not going to man up - I'm going to woman up."

Coderre said she is happy NACC is still able to bring events like this to smaller communities outside Yellowknife.

"We have really good support in Fort Simpson. It's all about the local promotion," she said. "Every artist that travels there loves it."

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