​Indigenous Reggae Artist Shauit To Converse With BCPS Kids

BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD —Indigenous reggae artist Shauit will chat with Baltimore County Public Schools students Tuesday, June 8, at 9:30 a.m. on Zoom. The event is open to the community, too.

Shauit will be speaking from Canada as part of the World Culture in Context initiative. This BCPS program connects students with renowned artists from around the globe. The series was launched in November 2020 by the BCPS Office of Social Studies and BCPS Office of Career and Technical Education and Fine Arts and the Baltimore-based Creative Alliance.

Singer-songwriter Shauit is of the Innu people who originally inhabited the lands that are now known as Northeastern Quebec, Canada. Today, an estimated 18,000 Innu live in Canadian cities and on reservations on traditional territory. Their language is considered to be vulnerable. Shauit’s music transcends genre. He has been singing in his native Innu language since the age of 13. In his early 20s, he discovered dancehall music and reggae and began blending his songs, still sung in Innu, with these musical forms with roots from thousands of miles to the south.

Previous World Culture in Context performances featured Canadian quintet Le Vent du Nord, dancer/choreographer/ cultural ambassador Melaku Belay, broadcasting from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; the gospel group The Legendary Ingramettes, broadcasting from Virginia; celebrated percussionist Kim So Ra, broadcasting from Seoul, South Korea; renowned bluesman Jontavious Willis, broadcasting from Georgia; and master throat singer Bady-Dorzhu Ondar, broadcasting from Siberia, Russia.