It would be an understatement to say Yukon Taiko, the North’s own traditional Japanese drumming group, active since 2015, is still going strong. In fact, the ensemble is gearing up for their biggest year yet, kicking off with a Jan. 31 performance at the Yukon Arts Centre (YAC) alongside RAW Taiko from Toronto.
Since they normally play slots on festivals and other events with multiple different types of performance, it isn’t often that Yukoners are treated to a taiko-exclusive showcase.
“Personally, I love this group,” says Yoko Oda, president of the Japanese Canadian Association of Yukon (JCAY) and a founding member of Yukon Taiko.
“We haven’t had a big taiko concert for awhile, so I felt it would be good to have a taiko concert and show the Yukon community we can use taiko for social justice as well as a Japanese traditional art form.”
RAW Taiko is made up of East- and Southeast-Asian women and gender non-conforming drummers. A politically-motivated group founded in 1998, it partakes in the taiko tradition born of Asian-American and Asian-Canadian participation in racial and gender justice movements of the 1960s and ’70s.
The ensemble has performed at large-scale events including Pride celebrations in Toronto and Buffalo, NY, the Dim Sum Chinese Festival as part of Harbourfront Centre’s World Routes Summer Festivals, Muhtadi International Drumming Festival in Toronto and Tobago, Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts, labour union conventions, International Women’s Day events, art festivals, social justice events, and more.
This winter marks the performers’ first time visiting the Yukon and sharing their expressions with a whole new audience that may or may not be familiar with their work, and the Taiko tradition as a whole.
“I’m excited and also a little apprehensive,” says Young Park, who has been with RAW Taiko since 2007 and took up the mantle as artistic director in 2017.
“I don’t know the area at all, and we just keep hearing about how cold it’ll be – but I’m very surprised and happy to hear that there’s a taiko group up there who found us.”
Park says she is excited to expand her own taiko community and meet the Yukon drummers in what will be an opportunity for an “exchange of ideas.” Oda found RAW Taiko online, and with funding from Lotteries Yukon and the Government of Yukon, was able to bring the two groups together for a unique experience in performance and education.
“I think it’s great to use taiko to express our identity and to bring the community together,” explains Oda. “We are not a big social justice group yet, but I think it’s a good start for the community to show that taiko can be good for that.”
The Yukon Taiko drummers will also have the chance to learn from RAW members and hone their techniques in a special workshop between the two groups. The drumming ensembles will also host a public workshop to teach community members of any skill or experience level about the taiko craft and history, the day after their YAC performance.
For Park, the chance to perform for and teach a whole new group of interested patrons was an opportunity that couldn’t be turned down.
“Residing in Toronto, sometimes we can be singing to the choir,” she says. “It’s easy to do the work when you’re in your bubble, and we’re always striving to stretch ourselves in drumming but also in our values and philosophy. It was an opportunity that came out of nowhere, and we like to say yes to the unknown when we can.”
Like Yukon Taiko, RAW Taiko is committed to constant evolution and continuous growth. Park goes as far as to say the RAW Taiko you see today looks much different than the one formed in 1998. Taking new opportunities, even ones she feels apprehensive about, is essential in the ensemble’s development.
“I can’t believe I’ve been part of [RAW] for so long,” she says. “I think the reason it doesn’t feel so long is because I’m constantly learning in this group; there’s something about being in RAW that makes me feel like a student in different ways all the time, whether musically, physically or the many other ways in how we work as a group.
“We take a lot of effort and energy to make sure our group dynamic is working well and that we’re practising our values as much as possible, internally as well as hopefully representing them externally. I’m very proud of RAW in the sense that it hasn’t gotten stuck in outdated philosophies. I feel like I’m still in the group because I’m still learning, and the group itself is constantly evolving.
“I’m really proud of the fact that the group has survived as long as it has,” says Park.
RAW Taiko’s performance with Yukon Taiko takes place on the YAC mainstage on Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at yukonartscentre.com. To keep up with RAW Taiko, visit the group’s website at rawtaiko.ca. To learn more and register for the Drumming Into Action workshop on Feb. 1 at the YAC, contact yukontaiko@gmail.com.
