Award-winning Indigenous curator, sound artist, scholar, media maker, and storyteller.

Jarrett Martineau is a creative multi-hyphenate and a leading voice in Indigenous music, media, and cultural production. He has worked extensively across the arts in music, radio, television, and digital media in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Berlin, and New York. He holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Indigenous Governance from the University of Victoria, he has been a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Columbia University and CUNY's Center for Place, Culture and Politics in New York City, and his academic research explores the role of art and creativity in advancing Indigenous resurgence and decolonization at the intersections of art, media, technology, and social movements.

Jarrett is currently Curator-in-Residence at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC, one of North America’s premiere performing arts centres, where he presents concerts, events, and public programming including the Indigenous-led festival ʔəm̓i ce:p xʷiwəl (Come Toward the Fire) and the acclaimed EXP Concert Series. He is also Guest Curator of the VIFF Live series for the Vancouver International Film Festival, and Guest Curator for Indian Summer Festival, with whom he has programmed multiple events since 2017.

In addition to his curatorial work, Jarrett is the creator, host, and producer of Reclaimed, the multiple award-winning, and first-ever Indigenous music program on CBC Music and CBC Radio, heard across Turtle Island (North America) on SiriusXM and Native Voice One: the Native American Radio Network. Jarrett is the recipient of two Silver Medals at the global New York Festivals Radio Awards for Best Regularly Scheduled Music Program and Best Music Program Host. He is the co-creator of Imaginarium, a new dialogue event series and podcast, with long-time collaborator Sirish Rao, that invokes a long continuum of storytelling to weave present and past into intimate interviews with some of the world’s most noted writers and thinkers.

Previously, Jarrett served as the City of Vancouver’s inaugural Music Officer, where he delivered the Vancouver Music Strategy and the Vancouver Music Fund, the first music funding of its kind in North America to provide dedicated support for Indigenous and underrepresented communities; and he co-founded SoundON, a music relief and recovery program to support BC’s music sector during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jarrett was the creator and showrunner of the award-winning documentary series RISE for VICELAND, which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Documentary Series, as well as a Reel Screen Diversity Award. He co-founded Revolutions Per Minute, a global new music platform, boutique record label, and live presenter celebrating contemporary Indigenous music, and he executive produced RPM’s award-winning podcast, which received United Nations gold medal recognition and multiple medals from the New York Festivals Radio Awards. Jarrett hosted the CBC's Emmy-nominated cross-platform television series ZeD, for which he received a Leo Award nomination; he was a host and producer of Brave New Waves, CBC’s groundbreaking, late night experimental music series on CBC Radio; and he co-founded the New Forms Festival, a contemporary art and music festival in Vancouver showcasing groundbreaking digital art and electronic music from across the world, alongside local and emerging talent.

Jarrett has curated music and arts events and public programming with a wide range of global partners including Vancouver International Film Festival, MUTEK, SXSW, Luminato Festival, PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, Manifesto Festival of Community & Culture, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Harbourfront Centre, POP Montreal, imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, Indian Summer Festival, Pride Toronto, Suoni Per Il Popolo, Mundial Montreal, and The Music Gallery. He has worked with CBC Radio, Music, Digital, and Television, VICE Media, MTV World, NowPublic, Make Believe Media, Elastic Entertainment, and other media partners to produce award-winning content for a global audience across all media; and has served on the Canadian Live Music Association’s Board of Directors, the JUNO Awards Indigenous Music Advisory Committee, and the Steering Committee for The Sector Equity for Anti-Racism in the Arts (SEARA).

His scholarly research and writing examine Indigenous art, music, and media as emergent forms of political communication. By exploring how Indigenous resistances to colonialism and neoliberal capitalism have changed under globalization, Jarrett's research pursues new pathways in Indigenous resurgence through the creative arts. 

Jarrett is a practicing sound artist and musician and one half of the electronic music duo CHXMERAS. They released their debut album Terminal City in 2024 and made their national live debut at the 25th Anniversary Edition of acclaimed electronic music festival MUTEK Montréal.

Jarrett is nêhiyaw (Plains Cree) and Denesųłiné from Frog Lake Cree Nation in Alberta and he is currently based in Vancouver on the traditional, unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.