Lively hip-hop and R&B artist Kapa Arkieh makes music with a mission to share his Amis culture with the world

Kapa Arkieh is a Vancouver musician with a big dream. A charismatic performer, he’s aiming for a level of success that enables him to change the world for Indigenous kids on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. “I want to utilize the music—and the funding from music—to start education centres in the villages of Taiwan,” Arkieh tells Pancouver over Zoom. “As I’m on this journey, I realize that music definitely saved my life.” Hip-hop and R&B have taken Arkieh to some remarkable heights. He toured China from the capital of Beijing to Xiamen in Fujian Province in 2017. He competed on the wildly popular, nationally televised Rap of China TV show. The song that he performed, “那一路啊” vaulted Arkieh onto the Taiwan Viral Top 50 on Spotify. And he’s produced for Dwagie (曾冠榕), a Golden Melody Award winner In Asia. Most importantly, music has helped connect Arkieh to his Indigenous heritage as Amis, which is the largest tribe in Taiwan. “We just need a bigger platform for people to know about us,” Arkieh says. “I just want to use the music as that platform to be able to share the culture. And hopefully, the culture will live on through...