HISTORY 

The Nenqayni Drummers are a group of women hand drummers from Williams Lake, British Columbia.  The first group of women to drum in the area.

A breakthrough for women in the Cariboo Chilcotin, this group began in November 1993 under orders from Jeannie Dick from Alkali Lake, BC.  The group practiced, in total, an hour and a half with Arthur Dick from Alkali Lake, BC and then were on their own.  Talk about scary stuff, the group practiced for six years, Monday to Friday, a half hour each morning.

During this six years they were invited to perform in the Cariboo Chilcotin for many events.  The events consisted of grand openings, graduations, weddings, funerals and so on.  The group became popular with the people and were named the Nenqayni Drummers as the majority of the group were Chilcotin.  Nenqayni is a word in the Chilcotin language that means Chilcotin.  Some say that "Nenqay" means the Earth and "ni" is an abbreviation for "Deni" meaning people.  Turn it around and you have "People of the Earth".

The first recording was done in April 1995, which was done hastily because the group was so excited to be recording.  Their voices were recorded separate from the drums and it just didn't go too well.  Well the group thought they had a great recording and so did their followers.  The album sold like hotcakes.  People from across British Columbia purchased the album, some as far away as Germany, England and Japan.

Along the way, Donna Narcisse and Margaret Anne Gunn dropped from the group, Margaret Anne married and moved away to Browning, Montana.  Jeff Sherstabetoff was the only male singer of the Nenqayni Drummers but he was allowed to stay with the group because he sounded like one of us.  He married and moved to Vancouver Island to raise a family.  The group sang at his wedding and made him cry before he left.

Today there are newcomers to the group, Val Duncan, Tanya Hutchinson and Maggie Ranger.

Thanks Williams Lake and surrounding communities for all your support.