Ta’Kaiya Blaney
Ta’Kaiya Blaney
An actor, singer-songwriter and Native Children’s Survival (NCS) Youth Ambassador from Tla A’min Nation, Turtle Island.
At the young age of 6, Ta’Kaiya starred in several award-winning short films depicting the role of a First Nations child taken from her traditional home and put into governmental residential schools run by the church. For her work in these films, Ta’Kaiya received two Leo Award nominations for “Best Performance by a Female in a Short Drama” by the British Columbia film and television industry. By the age of 10, Ta’Kaiya’s first music release and music video SHALLOW WATERS brought her national acclaim and earned her multiple awards and cultural honors.
From the Idle No More Movement to the United Nations Ta’Kaiya has performed and spoken at grass-roots Indigenous gatherings and rallies and at International conferences and forums across the globe. Ta’Kaiya’s engagements have included, the TUNZA United Nations Children and Youth Conference on the Environment in Bandung, Indonesia in 2011, the United Nations Rio+20 Conference on the Environment in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2012, and the United Nations Permanent Forum On Indigenous Issues, in New York City in 2013. In 2014, Ta’Kaiya was the youngest keynote speaker for Powershift (an annual global youth summit focusing on climate change policy) at Pittsburg, P.A. and Victoria, B.C. and the youngest Indigenous youth to present an intervention at the United Nations Headquarters Permanent Forum On Indigenous where she introduced the NCS “Indigenous Children’s Fund”.
Ta’Kaiya performed live and delivered a keynote address at The Parliament Of World Religions on 19 October 2015. The conference included such notable spiritual Leaders as Chief Arvol Looking Horse and His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. On 5 November 2015 at the Jack Poole Plaza in Vancouver in Coast Salish Territories, Ta’Kaiya performed and spoke at a public rally with Canadian author and social activist Naomi Klein calling for fundamental change on caring for each other and the planet in the wake of Canada’s federal election. In 2016 Ta’Kaiya delivered a keynote address at the sixty-sixth United Nations/Non-Governmental Organizations Conference in Gyeongju, Republic of Korea.
Ta’Kaiya is currently featured in several television programs including the HBO Documentary series Saving My Tomorrow and the APTN television series Konnected Tv.
As part of the NCS Youth Campaign for Climate Justice Ta’Kaiya’s inspirational music picture from the front lines of the environmental movement EARTH REVOLUTION premiered at the Conference of Youth in Paris, France on the eve of the historic 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21). The screening was prefaced by H.E. Laurent Fabius, French Foreign Minister and President of COP21.
Written and performed by Ta’Kaiya, EARTH REVOLUTION features children from around the world in a call to action to protect Mother Earth and all our relations for future generations. During COP21 EARTH REVOLUTION also screened at the Rights of Nature Tribunal on 5 December 2015 where Ta’Kaiya closed the event with a new song TURN THE WORLD AROUND. The TV news program Democracy Now filmed her performance and it has received more than 300,000 views on the Democracy Now Facebook and YouTube pages.
In 2017 Ta’Kaiya Blaney’s new single and music picture EARTH REVOLUTION drops digitally on iTunes, Amazon and leading music stores around the world.
Ta’Kaiya is currently on the Red Road speaking, performing and sharing her message with the world.
For more information: www.takaiyablaney.com
“I believe our generation does not see activism just as a necessity or obligation, but a beautiful opportunity to invent the unexpected and to spread our optimism that we can make a better world”