Gabriola Island's upcoming arts festival will explore strength, resilience and creativity over 11 days.
Organized by the Gabriola Arts Council, the island's Arts Island Festival begins on March 28 and runs until April 7, with many artists, advocates and knowledge keepers sharing their artistic, culinary and musical skills. Share.
Festival coordinator Naomi Melnyk said the celebration will include seven events and 30 unique workshops covering a diverse repertoire of skills from all over Gabriola, and new this year will also include a food-based program. He said that it would be possible.
Joel Love and Nico Rose will perform as the festival opener at The Haven's Phoenix Auditorium on Thursday, March 28th at 7pm.
Reading and Reconciliation: One Book One Community with Angela Sterritt and host Katherine Palmer Gordon will be held on Saturday, March 30th to discuss Sterritt's novel, Unbroken. Mellink said the event will be held in a book club-like setting and there will be a lot of discussion about the book's various topics, themes and social impact, as well as plenty of interaction with the author.
Next week, Jared Kustenuksan-Williams of Duncan will lead an Indigenous cooking workshop on April 3rd.
The workshop's name, Pickwin Salmon, refers to a specific butterfly salmon dish that is slow roasted over a fire, Williams said. In his workshop he will focus on Pickwin his salmon and Extum his potatoes. Both use cooking techniques that predate the colonization of southern Vancouver Island.
Stories are shared and collected while cooking. Williams said where he stands and who he stands with determines where the story goes, but it usually revolves around food, local history and the Fulcuminum language.
“I am always in awe of how indigenous peoples were able to build such sophisticated yet land-based food systems,” he said in an email. “Before contact, we fed everyone with food from the land, ensuring we had enough food to trade while leaving nature abundant.”
A graduate of Vancouver Island University's culinary program who has since worked as a cook in numerous kitchens, Williams' motivation for the workshop is simple. It's about passing on knowledge.
“It is very sad to see our elders pass away, but every time they pass away, we see a lot of knowledge being lost. Every day we are losing a library of knowledge. … Even to become a red seal, you have to learn French cooking and be tested on European mother sauces and mirepoix… It is like to the rest of the world our way of life is exactly the same.Existence I won’t,” he said.
Chefs say there is only a short amount of time left on earth to ensure that indigenous food systems are recognized as a great creation and to see it introduced into modern cuisine. He said he was acutely aware of this.
Isle of the Arts Festival includes Cedar Healing Circle with Shamanic Drums, Rattles, and Chant on March 31st, Spring Night Market and Community Dance Social on April 6th, and April 7th An art party is also planned for the day.
For more information about the festival, visit www.artsgabriola.ca.
Read more: Opera on Gabriola Island tells the story of post-war healing across three generations
