An Annual Celebration of Salmon!
Salmon play an integral role in coastal livelihoods, cultures, and ecosystems on the west coast. And they lead incredible lives, starting in fresh water then migrating to the ocean. Celebrating the backbone of the west coast is what inspires us to organize the annual Clayoquot Salmon Festival based out of Tofino.
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
*Event Descriptions below introduction*
**On Demand Reel Descriptions scroll to bottom.**
Introduction
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 Tuesday, 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. 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.
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 link into Salmon Nation’s larger Festival of What Works schedule with over 50 events and many on demand films!
EVENT SCHEDULE
November 2, 2021
6:00 – 6:30pm
Join the folks at the FEstival of What Works to kick off this year’s Festival of in ceremony and style. Hear from Amalaxa Louisa Smith – Counselor and Haisla Elder – who will welcome everyone and share the legacy of her brother, Wa’xaid, Cecil Paul’s Magic Canoe. Our Festival Director, Kel Moody, and Salmon Nation partners, will share what this week has to offer. And Annita McPhee, former three-term president of the Tahltan Nation in British Columbia, will share our community agreements for how we can connect during this incredible upcoming week. Join us!
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2021
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.
Featuring:
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.
Featuring:
Thursday, November 4th, 2021
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.
Featuring:
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.
Featuring:
Friday, November 5th, 2021
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.
Featuring:
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.
Featuring:
Saturday, November 6th, 2021
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.
Featuring:
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.
Featuring:
Sunday, November 7th, 2021
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.
Featuring:
Voices For Wild Salmon: Salmon Forests Reel
Looking Back, Looking Forward: Archives and Reflections
ƛaʔuukʷiatḥ Dugout Canoe
Salmon Parks
Salmon Parks premiered recently under BC Culture Days in collaboration with Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society – British Columbia (CPAWS-BC). The Salmon Parks initiative is supported by Uu-a-thluk, the aquatic resource management department of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tribal Council. Salmon Parks is an impact-driven film exploring the restoration efforts of the Mowachaht/Muchalaht and Nuchatlaht First Nations to recover key watersheds and restore wild salmon. The film aims to educate, raise awareness and ultimately secure the establishment of Salmon Parks as a matter of Nuu-chah-nulth law, with recognition by federal and provincial governments. Run Time: 11 minutes.
History of the 1993 Clayoquot Sound Logging Protests
Salmon Solidarity Documentary Screening
The Clayoquot Salmon Festival’s Salmon Solidarity Documentary Screening presented by Friends of Clayoquot Sound features “Fairy Creek: The Last Stand” – a film by Justin Douglas and David Testo.
“Fairy Creek: The Last Stand”
Salmon Celebration and Solidarity Concert Reel
The Salmon Celebration and Solidarity Concert Reel is presented by Friends of Clayoquot Sound as part of our Clayoquot Salmon Festival curation featuring 5 performances including the Gust of Wind Concert Series, Tsimka and Gisele Martin, Midnight Oil, and Praxis Life.
Gust of Wind Concert Series – Willie Thrasher
Gust of Wind Concert Series – No Attraction
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