Naomi Fletcher

Naomi Fletcher AKA Little Thunderbird Under the Earth Woman, is a youth intervention worker for Nishnawbe-Aski Legal Services Corporation, who organized the first ever “National Indigenous Peoples Day Hip-Hop Music Festival”, which occurred June 21 st 2024, in Timmins Ontario. As a youth worker, she seen the type of music some of the youth would listen to. They’d listen to things that romanticized drug use, suicide, etc… One night she came across the International Indigenous Hip Hop Awards Show website. She started listening to some of the artists who were nominated and fell in love with their music. She started to play music from Indigenous people when bringing youth to appointments, outings, etc… It’s safe to say, every youth loved the music because it was something that they could relate too, such as relating to the song “Lil’ Homie I Once Knew” by HK – Higher Knowledge. Some youth who even claimed to not “like music”, started requesting her to play these songs again. It was during this time where she had the dream to put on the first ever Indigenous Music Festival in

Timmins. She expressed that we need to see more Indigenous representation on stage. After all, Timmins has hosted Rock on the River bringing in Papa Roach, Default, Dean Brody, Buckcherry, amongst many other amazing artists and bands to the City.

After doing an event with HK – Higher Knowledge Easter Weekend 2024, they saw the desperate need for Indigenous representation on a bigger scale. Before HK left to go back home, they both agreed that they need to plan another event, and that’s when the National Indigenous Peoples Day Hip-Hop Music Festival was born. With only a couple of months to plan for this event, she was able to secure 10 Indigenous artists to perform. It turned out to be a very powerful evening and is something that she plans to do annually.

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