Jarrett Martineau (Curator)
Jarrett Martineau is a creative multi-hyphenate and a leading voice in Indigenous music, media, and cultural production. Jarrett is nêhiyaw (Plains Cree) and Denesųłiné from Frog Lake Cree Nation in Alberta and he is currently based in Vancouver on the traditional, unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Jarrett is currently Curator-in-Residence at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC, one of North America’s premiere performing arts centres, where he presents concerts, events, and public programming including the Indigenous-led festival ʔəm̓i ce:p xʷiwəl (Come Toward the Fire) and the acclaimed EXP Concert Series. He is also Guest Curator of the VIFF Live series for the Vancouver International Film Festival, and Guest Curator for Indian Summer Festival, with whom he has programmed multiple events since 2017.
In addition to his curatorial work, Jarrett is the creator, host, and producer of Reclaimed, the multiple award-winning, and first-ever Indigenous music program on CBC Music and CBC Radio, heard across Turtle Island (North America) on SiriusXM and Native Voice One: the Native American Radio Network. Jarrett is the recipient of two Silver Medals at the global New York Festivals Radio Awards for Best Regularly Scheduled Music Program (2023) and Best Music Program Host (2022). He recently created Imaginarium, a new dialogue event series and podcast, with long-time collaborator Sirish Rao, that invokes a long continuum of storytelling to weave present and past into intimate interviews with some of the world’s most noted writers and thinkers.
Jarrett was the creator and showrunner of the award-winning documentary series RISE for VICELAND, which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Documentary Series, as well as a Reel Screen Diversity Award. He co-founded Revolutions Per Minute, a global new music platform, boutique record label, and live presenter celebrating contemporary Indigenous music, and he executive produced RPM’s award-winning podcast, which received United Nations gold medal recognition and multiple medals from the New York Festivals Radio Awards.
His scholarly research and writing examine Indigenous art, music, and media as emergent forms of political communication. By exploring how Indigenous resistances to colonialism and neoliberal capitalism have changed under globalization, Jarrett’s research pursues new pathways in Indigenous resurgence through the creative arts.
Photo credit: Jalani Morgan
