Indigenous Justice Coordinator for the Diocese of New Westminster, Brander Raven McDonald is asking everyone in the diocese and beyond to join with him in financial support of "The Salmon Hear our Songs and Prayers."
June 6 - June 11
Participants will be driving June 6, 2016 to Mount Robson and over the course of five days will visit a number of Fraser Basin First Nations communities. See the posters attached below for exact locations and program features.
This is an opportunity for everyone to support this project financially, click here to go to the Crowdfunding site. Other ways to give are included below.
The 2015 version of the Wild Salmon Caravan took place in mid-May, please click the link to view a video made about the event.
The “Salmon Hear our Songs” project is intended to nurture the creative energy that has been inspired by wild salmon throughout the millennia, and realize in a mirror of cross cultural relationships the artistic expressions of the many Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals, organizations, communities, artists and coalitions working to save wild salmon and their habitat along the shores of the Fraser Basin. The process of coming together to realize in a mirror of cross cultural relationships our cultural and historical relationships to our most important Indigenous food, will shine a holographic light on the creative ideas, knowledge and values 3rd cultural dimension where Indigenous meets non-Indigenous.
The wild salmon is to Indigenous peoples, what the Buffalo is to the Plains people. The wild salmon play an ecological and cultural keystone role within the ancient rainforests, fields and waterways within the diverse landscapes in BC where they have cycled rich nutrients and food over thousands of years. They feed our peoples, the bears, the eagles, the wolves and their genes have been found at the tops of the cedar trees from Alaska to California.
In addition to being the world’s most harassed fish, salmon have inspired many artists around the world throughout the millennia. The project will reconcile historical injustices experienced by Indigenous peoples in our cultural and historical relationships to wild salmon with the serious issues that underlie the industrial storm that is threatening them in a way that words cannot communicate.
“The Salmon Hear our Songs and Prayers” project will provide a framework for reconciling social and environmental injustices experienced by Indigenous peoples in our relationship to wild salmon, our most important Indigenous food in what is recognized as one of Canada’s best known Heritage River Systems, the Fraser Basin. In this context, the project is transformative in the way it will shed a holographic light on the issues, concerns, situations, and strategies that exist within the 3rd dimension where ancient Indigenous cultural knowledge, values and wisdom meets the unsustainable path charted in the large scale capitalistic economies in the 21st century.
The project will inspire creative multi-media strategies to link individuals, organizations, churches, coalitions and communities working to increase awareness of the magnificence of wild salmon and why they are important to people of all cultures and to ecosystems in supernatural British Columbia. We will draw attention to many of the 94 recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
As mentioned earlier, the 2016 Wild Salmon Caravan begins on Monday, June 6 and will feature a variety of program events running until June 11. Please download the event posters linked below.
“The Salmon Hear our Songs and Prayers” project needs your help to achieve the $5,000 fundraising goal.
There are three ways to give:
- Interac e transfer to Dawn Morrison's email address: dmo6842@gmail.com - this approach saves the event organizers having to pay the 3% paypal fee associated with the crowdfunding campaign.
- Contribute online to the crowdfunding campaign.
- Send cheque or money order to Wild Salmon Caravan, 555 East 55 Avenue, Vancouver, BC, V5X 1N6.
Brander asks that you take a moment and visit the newly launched Wild Salmon Caravan website where you can find more detailed information about caravan events and ways you can participate.