Revelstoke community projects benefit from Axis Mundi partnerships

Sponsored Post – This post created in partnership with Axis Mundi Harvest festival

Axis Mundi is not only bringing music to the Revelstoke community with their Harvest and Solstice festivals, they’re quietly boosting the community in a number of other arenas.

Perhaps the most unique act of their Axis Mundi Harvest festival line-up, The Nyundo School Road Show, will not only play at the festival but given their extraordinary background, will provide an educational experience for the community and Revelstoke’s students.

The Nyundo School of Music in action. Photo: Screen grab Rise and Shine Rwanda video.

A quick history on the Nyundo band; Canadian musician and the group’s leader Jacques Murigande (aka The Mighty Popo) began the task of establishing the first public music school in Nyundo, Rwanda.

Axis Mundi Harvest has helped bring over this group of hand-picked and talented students who will play at the September 18–20 festival and be part of a workshop with the Revelstoke Secondary School music program the following weekend.

“I think it’s very exciting that [Axis Mundi programming director] Hugo Rampen and Axis Mundi is bringing the young Rwandan choir to Revelstoke and providing the opportunity for local young people to engage with them,” Revelstoke Arts Council theatre manager Miriam Manley said.

Manley, along with the Revelstoke Multicultural Society will assist with organising the workshop. She says having a travelling band like Nyundo is a rare opportunity.

“We sometimes get multicultural performances coming through, who are based in Canada,” she said. “But for an actual international group to come is not something we can do very often. The way our funding works at the arts council, we get funding for groups based in B.C. and a bit of funding for groups based in Canada but there’s no funding for groups outside of the country.

“I think that is probably the biggest thing Axis Mundi is doing in terms of engagement. Bringing a Rwandan group is incredible and not something we can do as a local arts council.”

Unwanted produce from backyard fruits will be converted to canned produce. Photo: Flickr

The Harvest festival is not only about music, but it will also hear from inspirational speakers and those that are experts in their mountain fields. It will also have adventure gear and sports street fair, plus a stall selling goodies from possibly your backyard apple tree.

Axis Mundi has entered into a partnership with the Revelstoke Bear Aware Society and the North Columbia Environmental Society’s Local Food Initiative to provide dried and fresh produce from Revelstoke’s gardens.

Black bears scour a tree for plums in Revelstoke. Photo: Revelstoke Bear Aware Society

Every fall the number of berries available in town tend to attract bears looking to fill their bellies for winter hibernation. Last year was above average year for bear sightings and sadly, the number of bears put down.

Gleaning volunteer Natalie Stafl. Photo: Revelstoke Bear Aware Society

The gleaning and canning program identifies unmanaged residential fruit trees and turns unwanted yield into production.

A branch of this is the educational program KIDS CAN! The Bear Essentials that will get Revelstoke students and kids involved with gleaning, food processing and documentation of the project.

You can donate to the program here and funds will be raised for both Bear Aware and the LFI. This will allow them to install a designated coordinator for this project, supervisory hours for Bear Aware and the LFI’s coordination efforts, equipment and supplies, and facility rental for processing fruit.

And lastly, Axis Mundi is working with the Revelstoke Community Wave Park Supporters group to bring together a gear swap to raise funds.

The community group was formed to attempt to build a whitewater play and surf park on the lower Illecillewaet river in Revelstoke.

They’ve made some progress and last year they received a grant of $15,000 from the City of Revelstoke’s Community Infrastructure Fund to conduct a feasibility study for the project.

This gear swap will help raise further funding for more critical planning and eventually, construction.