Native Women in the Arts presents Kwe Performance Series: Acts of Sovereignty featuring SLUTCODE, Sabio, and Dead Ex Girlfriends at the famed Horseshoe Tavern, Friday, June 26, 2026.
Celebrating the power of Indigenous punk and grunge as expressions of resistance, sovereignty, and self-determination.Indigenous artists have long used punk’s DIY ethos and grunge’s raw intensity to challenge colonial narratives, confront ongoing injustices, and assert vibrant Indigenous presence in the present. Blending music, performance, cultural expression, and activism, Indigenous punk and grunge create space for truth-telling, survival, and Indigenous futurity.
Through live performance, Kwe Performance Series: Acts of Sovereignty amplifies Indigenous voices that are loud, unapologetic, and transformative, showcasing artists whose work embodies the energy, urgency, and resilience at the heart of these influential genres.
Friday, June 26, 2026
The Horseshoe Tavern
370 Queen Street West, Toronto
Tickets: Advance $16.50/Door $20
Doors 8PM, Show 9PM – 12AM
Tickets can be purchased at www.horseshoetavern.com.
For more information email info@nwia.ca and visit www.nwia.ca.
A four-piece ART-PUNK band without a guitar. Paying homage to all riot-grrl sludge punk heroes before them. Sounds Dark, Heavy, Kooky, Riot-Grrl-esque. Based in Toronto, includes JL Whitecrow (vocals), Cara Chellew (Bass), Heloise George (Synth).
SLUTCODE started as a basement jam band and now they play shows for FUN.
Over the years, they have performed at The Silver Dollar Room, Bovine Sex Club, Monarch Tavern, Handlebar, Garrison, Baby G, and have opened for bands like PUP, Downtown Boys, La Neve, NO MEN, Alouette, Bile Sister, Mother Tongues, WLMRT, Come Back Barbara, and The Handsome Savages.
Sabio is a Toronto based 3 piece band that mixes Latin music with Heavy Grunge. Founded in 2021, Johann, Tom and James are featuring their two most recent single releases Manic Hispanic and Heaven is Sold.
Saskatoon’s Indigenous grunge-punk band Dead Ex Girlfriends has released its long-awaited debut album, Take Me to the After Party, available now on all major streaming platforms. Packed with seven gritty tracks, the album crawls deep inside party culture and its consequences—sex, love, abuse, drugs and alcohol, grief, and the haze of regret that follows when the party is over. Whether you’re the partying type or someone just trying to get to the after-party, Dead Ex Girlfriends’ debut album, Take Me to the After Party, will leave you begging to come in and begging to leave.
Formed in 2020, Dead Ex Girlfriends are Vada Boyer (they/she, vocals), Gabrielle Giroux (she/her, guitar), Siena Rose (she/her, drums), and Cairo Dawn (she/her, bass). From their 2023 live debut at a sweaty, sold-out basement show to celebrating this release in that very same basement—this time joined by Regina’s SADIE HAWKINZ for an intimate, invite-only release party—Dead Ex Girlfriends’ reputation for blistering, gut-punching live performances has cemented them as one of the province’s deadliest new acts.
The Horseshoe Tavern, located in Toronto’s Queen West neighbourhood has been a Canadian musical institution since it opened its doors in 1947. The Horseshoe Tavern welcomed blues and folk artists in the 1960s; reggae, mod, punk and new wave acts in the 1970s and 1980s; and then alternative rock and everything from ska, surf and swing to Celtic music and alternative country from the 1990s onward.
Kwe Performance Series
Acts of Sovereignty is presented as part of the Kwe Performance Series which showcases Indigenous women and other gender marginalized Indigenous artists from diverse nations, and communities, leading to a deeper understanding and appreciation for Indigenous arts, culture, and community.
The Kwe Performance Series events include performances and workshops for the community in Toronto as well as outreach to on-reserve and under-serviced communities in Ontario.
