17th Annual Coastal Dance Festival Honours Stories, Song and Dance From World's Indigenous Communities

Dancers of Damelahamid present the 17th annual Coastal Dance Festival, honouring Indigenous stories, song, and dance from across Canada and around the world, March 1-3, 2024 at the Anvil Centre (777 Columbia Street) in New Westminster. This year's festival will feature an exclusive excerpt from Dancers of Damelahamid's upcoming full-length work, Raven Mother, created in honour of the late Elder Margaret Harris, co-founder of Dancers of Damelahamid in 1967. The culmination of generations of artistic and cultural work, Raven Mother is the group's most ambitious production to date.

“My mother, Elder Harris, dedicated her life to the revitalization and teaching of Indigenous cultural practices, including song, dance, stories, and regalia making,” says Margaret Grenier, Festival Executive & Artistic Director. “This new work speaks to her indelible legacy and the integral role of women in holding cultural knowledge. Through her profound leadership, a cultural resurgence was awakened, marking the shift between generations that has sparked a new role for our daughters as the force to hold their grandmother's vision.”

The excerpt will showcase a striking and intricate new raven transformation mask to represent the work's generational collaboration, with the larger raven opening up to reveal several smaller interconnected human faces inside – each mask representing a generation of daughters inspired by their matriarch, Elder Harris. Also featured is a raven cloak made of feathers, designed by Dancers of Damelahamid performer and regalia designer Rebecca Baker-Grenier. A traditional Gitxsan piece of regalia, this type of cloak has not been danced for many generations.
 

Dancers of Damelahamid will be joined at the 17th annual Coastal Dance Festival by a host of the festival's signature artists and performance groups, including returning favourites: a family group of grandmothers, mothers, and daughters, Chesha7 iy lha mens (Skwxwu7mesh, Stó:lō, Tsimsian); dynamic dance group Chinook Song Catchers (Skwxwu7mesh, Nisga'a); the award-winning Inland Tlingit Dakhká Khwáan Dancers; mask-dancing groups Git Hayetsk (Nisga'a, Tsimshian) and Git Hoan (Tsimshian); dancer and educator Laura Grizzlypaws (St'át'imc); Rainbow Creek Dancers (Haida), in celebration of traditional Haida ceremonial dances; Squamish-based Spakwus Slolem (Skwxwu7mesh), who share their canoe and cedar longhouse culture; a family group from many First Nations Xwelmexw Shxwexwo:s (Stó:lō, Musqueam, Sts:ailes, Snuneymuxw, Nuu-chah-nulth, Skwxwu7mesh); and Yisya̱'winux̱w (Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw), a group representing many of the 16 tribes of the Kwakwa̱ka̱'wakw people on Northern Vancouver Island.

Also returning for their second Coast Dance Festival appearances are special guests: Saskatchewan's award-winning Métis fiddler Adam Daigneault, who made his festival debut in 2022, and Māori artist Karena Koria, who first performed at the festival as a member of the Turanga Ararau Kapa Haka group from Gisborne, New Zealand, as part of the 2010 Cultural Olympiad. In 2024, Karena will perform as one half of the Turongo Collective, with his partner and wife, Milly Grant-Koria.

This year's programming represents the spirit of Elder Harris' legacy – the support and celebration of the ongoing artistic practice of the songs, dances, and stories from Indigenous communities across British Columbia, Canada, and the world.

Adds Grenier: “Cultivating a caring community has always been at the core of the Coastal Dance Festival's values and is more important than ever in the aftermath of the pandemic, from which the forced disruption of cultural practices is still impacting communities today. Artistic practices shape the cultural identity and well-being of our community members, and we wanted to emphasize a regional focus in 2024 to support the many artists who are integral members of our festival's dance family.”

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