Russell Wallace, from Lil'wat Nation, is an award-winning composer, producer, teacher, and traditional singer. His music can be heard on soundtracks for film, television, theatre, and dance productions across Canada and the U.S. When he teaches singing workshops, he’s led by intuition and meeting the participants where they are at. For him, singing and music is creative self-expression and a responsibility.

Growing up with 10 siblings in East Vancouver, he did not learn St'át'imc from his father out of protection for the punishments his parents received from Residential schooling for speaking their language or singing their songs. However, his mother secretly sang them as a little girl with the other children to keep their songs and their culture alive.

“I have a responsibility to my parents and my mom who shared with me all of these songs and all these teachings about our music. Being an artist, I'm responsible for sharing and passing that along to the community and to my children and grandchildren as well. We are the voice for some things, or we could be a catalyst, or we could be a form of comfort . . . we bring something to the world that the world needs.”