From self-isolation to cancelled book tours: Indigenous artists feeling the impact of COVID-19

The economic impact of the COVID-19 outbreak is profound — businesses are closing, workers are being laid off. It is hitting artists and creative types especially hard. 

For musicians, performers, writers and artists, if they don't get their work out to an audience, they don't make any money. This week on Unreserved, some of the Indigenous artists making art in the time of quarantine. 

This week, We Are Water Protectors, a new picture book by Carole Lindstrom, hit bookstores. Usually when a writer releases a new book, there are launch parties, signings, and talks. But when you release a book during a pandemic, the typical ways to promote it disappear. 

Earlier this month, WHOOP-Szo hit the road to promote their latest album, Warrior Down. The group planned to hit 31 cities, and would have been on the road for nearly two months. But after a couple of shows, they cancelled the rest of the tour. Frontman Adam Sturgeon spoke to Unreserved from Sarnia, Ont. 

Much of Hunter Cardinal and Jacquelyn Cardinal's work as an Indigenous consulting firm has been put on hold as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The siblings realized that many of the artists, tourism companies and venues they work with might be out of work too, so they decided to survey them and hold a digital roundtable to gauge the situation — and think of solutions.