Tag Archives: Awaken the Canoes

Ceremony in West Vancouver marks formal arrival of canoe season

By Mina Kerr-Lazenby, North Shore News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The crowd that congregated on West Vancouver’s Ambleside Beach on Saturday afternoon would have been forgiven for thinking it was peak summertime, if the July-like temperatures hadn’t been outshone by the quintessentially spring activity they were all there for.

Members of both the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) and Tsleil-Waututh Nation joined the police forces of both West and North Vancouver to welcome the return of spring, and with it, the Sema7maka and Ch’ich’iyuy canoes.

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Tl’emtl’ems Left Squirrel Cove

By Roy L Hales

Its almost 550 km from Squirrel Cove, on Cortes Island, to Puyallup, Washington by car, but centuries by canoe. In 1884 the Canadian Government joined in a conspiracy to destroy the canoe traffic that had been plying coastal waters, from Alaska to California, since the beginnings of oral tradition.  First Nations people were restricted to their reserves and had had to obtain permission to leave. The reawakening started almost 30 years ago, in what has since become an annual event.  A different nation hosts the gathering every year and this summer the gathering is at Puyallup. The Klahoose canoe Tl’emtl’ems left Squirrel Cove at 10 AM this morning. 

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Awaken the Canoes

Originally published on Cortes Radio,ca, as part of the Deep Roots Initiative, Season Two.

What was the role of the canoe in pre-contact indigenous culture? What caused its decline? And how are canoe journeys helping the Klahoose and her sister nations rediscover their past? In this episode, producer Roy Hales asks how they awaken the canoes.

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