Winner of the 2018 Polaris Prize, and a 2019 Juno for his album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, this incredible artist makes his first appearance on the Festival Stage.

A Wolastoqiyik member of the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, Dutcher studied music and anthropology at Dalhousie University. He recorded Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, following a research project on old archival recordings of traditional Maliseet songs at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. He painstakingly transcribed Wolastoq songs from 1907 wax cylinders. As he listened to each recording, he felt his own musical impulses stirring from deep within. Long days at the archives turned into long nights at the piano, feeling out melodies and phrases, deep in dialogue with the voices of his ancestors.