Clayoquot Salmon Festival X The Festival of What Works
Salmon play an integral role for coastal livelihoods, cultures, and ecosystems on the west coast. And they lead incredible lives, starting in freshwater then migrating to the ocean. Celebrating the backbone of the west coast is what inspires Friends of Clayoquot Sound to organize the annual Clayoquot Salmon Festival based out of Tofino. With COVID remaining an issue, Friends of Clayoquot Sound are taking the 2021 Clayoquot Salmon Festival online once again.
For a second year in a row, the Clayoquot Salmon Festival is teaming up with Salmon Nation’s Festival of What Works for a week to celebrate salmon and amplify what is working to protect the greater salmon bioregion. The Clayoquot Salmon Festival X Festival of What Works collaboration runs from Sunday, November 2 – Sunday, November, 7, featuring 50+ online events, 100+ speakers, and short films on demand. By taking Clayoquot Salmon Festival online, we aim to provide an opportunity to reflect upon and build an active appreciation for the irreplaceable value of salmon to people and ecosystems across the salmon bioregion.
Reconciliation and collective healing are major themes for this year’s content as Indigenous knowledge and stewardship are humanity’s greatest hope for protecting salmon, the ancient salmon forests and salmon watersheds. Tla-o-qui-aht master carver and land defender, Joe Martin, shares his ancestral knowledge and artistic practice in “ƛaʔuukʷiatḥ Dugout Canoe” and “Forests Across Generations”, with both films available on demand through the Festival. Numerous short films from Friends of Clayoquot Sound and our allies, also presented on demand, help tell the stories of the thousands who have mobilized and been arrested in both Clayoquot Sound and Fairy Creek to protect the old-growth trees of the salmon ecosystems on Vancouver Island.
At least 137 different species depend on the marine-rich nutrients that wild salmon provide. As a keystone species, salmon support life such as orcas, bears, wolves, and eagles while providing nutrients to the ancient rainforests of Pacific Northwest. But salmon are also under significant stress in the environment from climate change and water pollutants. Within the on demand section you can also watch “Salmon Warriors: An End to Engineered Fish” to learn more of the important perspectives on salmon solidarity with Skookum John in Ahousaht and marine biologist Alexandra Morton in the Broughton Archipelago.
The Clayoquot Salmon Festival is timed to coincide with the return of the salmon spawning season on the west coast. The tenacious drive of salmon hurling themselves upriver over obstacles to give life to the next generation is inspiring to witness. The Festival always prioritizes celebrating the return of the salmon with our own creative spirit. Make sure to check out the on demand Gust of Wind performance series presented in collaboration with the Tofino Arts Council. Willie Thrasher and No Attraction perform outdoors offering powerful songs and thoughtful perspectives at iconic locations around Clayoquot Sound.
Salmon are essential to protecting a way of life rooted in the Pacific northwest environment. They inspire us to confront challenges, like having difficult conversations, which is why we are focusing on education through the Festival at this important time. To stay up to date with all the events, please follow Friends of Clayoquot Sound and Clayoquot Salmon Festival on Facebook and visit our website www.focs.ca/salmonfestival to link into Salmon Nation’s larger Festival of What Works schedule with over 50 events and many on demand films!
Clayoquot Salmon Festival Curated Event Stream
Schedule for the Festival of What Works
6 Days / 50+ Online Events / Free & By Donation
Register @ www.festivalofwhat.works
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November 2, 2021
Kick Off Event
6:00 – 6:30pm
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November 3, 2021
Nature Based Planning in Action
10:00 – 11:30am
Nature-based solutions are underpinned by natural processes or structures, designed to address environmental challenges while providing multiple benefits to economy, society and our ecological systems. In short: they’re what works. Two exceptional leaders and planners share how we can use nature to inform, plan, design and make decisions—and how, by doing so, we can protect our natural environments. Herb Hammond, from Silva Forest Foundation, will share the philosophy, principles and process of nature-based planning, and how his development of NBP has been shaped by his work with many Indigenous peoples. Dawn Morrison, from the Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty, will share her analysis, insights and experience on how NBP is complementary to Indigenous knowledge, laws and governance. She will also share an overview of current work that is using NBP to reassert Indigenous rights to hunt, fish, farm and to protect land and water.
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November 3, 2021
The Residential School Legacy—And What Comes Next
1:30 – 2:30pm
For much of the 20th century in Canada, it was mandatory for all Indigenous children to be taken from their families and sent to institutions designed to assimilate them into white, Christian, Canadian society. Abhorrent abuse was widespread and systemic. Two Indigenous elders who have survived the Residential School System share their stories, and discuss what we can do—now—to support those still facing the after-effects of this shameful history, and confront the ongoing, systemic racism towards Indigenous people still occurring today. Only by listening and understanding can we begin to move forward into action. There will be a live Q&A with the panelists.
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November 4, 2021
The Blue Economy
3:00 – 4:30pm
How can Alaskans harness the opportunity to create healthy economies and ecosystems through development of Indigenous-led kelp farming practices? This session will showcase leaders in the Blue Economy—Alaskans staking a claim in the state’s plans to grow a billion-dollar mariculture industry. While leading fisheries are lining up for permits, the difference lies in millennia of experience in sustainable harvest and marine responsibility that inform a Native brand in Indigenous-led kelp farming and processed foods.
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November 4, 2021
4:00 – 6:00pm
Kelly Terbasket, co-founder of IndigenEYEZ and kinSHIFT, will share how combining creative arts practices with land-based learning offers medicine for our troubled relationships, particularly between Indigenous peoples and settlers. Called the creative empowerment model, this creative play allows us to access our imagination, vulnerability, and participate in co-learning in a way that builds trust. Join us for this original, important interactive workshop.
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November 5, 2021
UNDRIP: Why It Matters
3:00 – 4:00pm
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the General Assembly in 2007 by a majority of 144 states in favour. Both Canada and the United States voted against. Jennifer Preston and Paul Joffe will discuss UNDRIP, sharing its history and its current state as a global human rights instrument. It establishes a universal framework of minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of the Indigenous peoples of the world and—as Preston and Joffe highlight—it can be used to advance sustainable development, address climate change and enhance food security. Both presenters were involved in the development of the Declaration and now work to implement it. Find out more about this essential agreement and its power for good.
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November 5, 2021
Activism Beyond Burnout
4:00 – 5:30pm
Activists often live and work inside contexts that make self care difficult. This healing session will be led by two lifelong BC activist leaders sharing their own stories and strategies, and offering practices that help to sustain this work. Participants will learn about deep breathing, self-care, support networks and other strategies to commit deeply to the service of life, including our own.
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November 6, 2021
Climate Resilient Salmon: Insights from the Bioregion
10:00 – 11:30am
Across Salmon Nation, people are working to understand the ways that wild salmon are being impacted by changes in climate—and taking actions to support climate resilience in these vital species. Bringing together a diverse group of local conservation leaders, Indigenous leaders and scientists from Alaska to California, this panel will share observations and insights into the ways that climate is shaping the future of wild salmon ecosystems, and what we can do to promote resilience in wild salmon and salmon-centric ways of life.
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November 6, 2021
Salmon Stories: Taking the Pulse of Salmon Nation
2:00 – 3:00pm
The Magic Canoe is a storytelling entity that seeks to amplify stories of what works across the bioregion, and support the vision of Salmon Nation—as a place and an idea. One of its projects—in addition to the Festival—is Salmon Stories: an initiative that seeks out Fellows from across the bioregion to collect and record stories about the importance of salmon to their community. This is an experiment in non-extractive storytelling and decentralized editorship; a way of sharing stories from the vast diversity of the bioregion while building a robust storytelling collective. Find out more about the initiative, meet some of the Fellows, and hear what works about this model.
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November 7, 2021
Water is Life: Festival Closing Ceremony
4:00 – 4:45pm
Water is the lifeblood of Salmon Nation and clean water is essential to all life on earth. Ceremony helps us to recognize and honour this. Diverse leaders from Alaska to California will share practices that celebrate the power of water to heal, shift states and connect us all in this collection of interconnected videos from across the bioregion. Spiritual traditions across time and space have revered water as life giver, cleanser and sacred element. By learning from these featured practitioners we can be inspired to create our own culturally-appropriate ways to deepen our connection and commitments to water.
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