A Quechua ritual song recorded in Montreal by Chilean immigrants, featuring a rapper from Oaxaca and honouring a Bolivian tradition connected to Chilean resistance: Kon-Fusion turn “Tinku” into a ska track that links four countries and three musical generations. The track, featuring Mixe Represent from Tamazulapan Mixe in Oaxaca, Mexico, reworks the traditional Bolivian festive song popularised by Víctor Jara and Inti-Illimani in the 1970s as an expression of resistance against dictatorship.

The word “tinku” means “encounter” in Quechua. Originally a community ritual to honour Pachamama (Mother Earth), sometimes combative, it brought villages together in the Andes, from Peru to Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina. Jara turned it into a symbol of solidarity among peoples. The lyrics, sung in Quechua, centre on repeated calls to “ñañitay” (my little sister) within the ritual encounter between villages. Kon-Fusion describe their version as “a joyful expression of solidarity between punk musicians and Indigenous cultures.” The accompanying video was filmed during their 17-day tour of Mexico in late 2023 around the Day of the Dead.

Formed in 2012 in pre-gentrification Verdun, Montreal, the band was started by two Chilean immigrants: Pablo Morales (vocal, charango, güira), who learned revolutionary songs from his mother and became part of Santiago’s activist punk scene, and Luciano Toro (acoustic guitar, flutes), raised in a family of street musicians near Concepción who played Andean folk in the streets when they first arrived in Canada. Their sound mashes Mexican ska-punk, Chilean cumbia and traditional Andean music with DIY punk ethics and anarchistic drive.

Kon-Fusion have toured Quebec, Ontario and Mexico, playing festivals, co-ops and workers’ rights rallies. They have won Alternative Group of the Year at the Canadian Latin Awards and the Syli Bronze, and their music was used on national radio during the 2021 Chilean uprising. Their third album Arriba de Su Muro is scheduled for spring 2026 via MTL Sauce Piquante.

You can stream, listen to and purchase the single on the label’s Bandcamp page