“Every year, we’ve been adapting and responding to both community feedback and audience feedback,” says Chan Centre Head Curator Jarrett Martineau. “The university’s lands are on Musqueam territory and we’ve been working with them directly, both to come up with the festival name and the overall festival plan.”

Activities include films and workshops dedicated to sharing knowledge about Indigenous culture, as well as popular music and dance performances.

Learning from an Indigenous perspective

The Day of Knowledge Sharing, according to Martineau, was created in response to a recurring piece of feedback they’ve received.

“A lot of the audience that’s coming, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous,” he says, “they’ve been really interested in learning more about Indigenous language and culture, and context, from which the festival and programming have emerged.”

The day’s programming will kick off with performances from Salish song and dance group Coastal Wolf Pack and Manitoba-based duo Burnstick, who will also be performing in the main festival on Saturday.

“We’re bringing in artists from all over the continent,” says Martineau, “and Friday is the initial introduction to some of those voices.”

The rest of the day will feature workshops on different topics regarding contemporary Indigenous culture. In addition to learning about ethical uses of Indigenous iconography and the traditional Musqueam language hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓, visitors can attend a roundtable of artists from Saturday’s performance lineup discussing their efforts to revitalize their native language in their territories.

Visitors can also take tours of the Museum of Anthropology led by Indigenous representatives that look at the museum’s collections from their respective nations’ perspective, or attend a tenth anniversary screening of The Secret Path in collaboration with the Downie & Wendjack Fund.

“We have a number of Musqueam language keepers and elders, and cultural knowledge holders, who are the first voices you’ll experience,” says Martineau. “And then beyond that, we wanted to bring some focus into ones from outside Vancouver who are doing interesting work with respect to their language or culture. So it really kind of flows from that.”

Welcome to all

Those interested in attending the Day of Knowledge sharing can register for free wristbands on the festival website. However, the Chan Centre is working closely with the Downie & Wendjack Fund to extend invitations to high school students as part of their legacy schools program. Martineau hopes that, in addition to education about contemporary Indigenous culture and perspectives, the additional day of programming will provide a draw for visitors to check out the rest of the festival’s programming.

“There may be a lot of people who have never had the opportunity to visit the community directly, or may not know about some of that history,” he says. “So learning about the language and culture, and history and context, for the place where we live is super important.”

The Head Curator hopes the workshops, films, and other activities will give people “a chance to try a hands-on experience with something they didn’t know about before,” and convince them to attend the rest of the festival.

“[Come Toward The Fire], it kind of carries this whole spirit […] which is really about inviting people in to sit by the fire,” says Martineau, “to recognize and lift up voices, to share stories and share experience. And so I think the festival is a real opportunity for that.”

For more information, visit:  www.cometowardthefire.com/schedule/sept-18-day-of-knowledge-sharing