Come Toward the Fire Free Indigenous Festival

The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC and Musqueam present a full slate of programming for the 3rd annual Indigenous festival ʔəm̓i ce:p xʷiwəl (Come Toward the Fire).

Come Toward the Fire
Free Indigenous Festival

• Dates: Saturday, September 14, 2024 from 12:00pm to 7:00pm
• Location: Chan Centre for the Performing Arts (6265 Crescent Rd, Vancouver) and surrounding area.
• Tickets: Free, no tickets required.
  • Parking at the nearby Rose Garden Parkade is free from 11:00am.

Program Highlights

Community members Manuel Strain and Christie Lee Charles to return as hosts for the 2024 festival. The outdoor River Grass Stage will feature musical performances and invited speakers Tsatsu Stalqayu / Coastal Wolf Pack, Digawolf, Fawn Wood, Sister Ray, Hayley Wallis, DJ Kookum and Sierra Baker (K̓esugwilakw), and MJScottS. 

Outside of the Chan Centre lobby, the Cedar Grove Stage will feature poets, authors, and storytellers. Massy Books, a nêhiyaw-Métis woman-owned and operated bookstore, has curated a literary program that will feature three youth poets under the theme “Our Bodies A Megaphone.” Shawnelle Blackbird Riley is a queer Anishinaabekwe from Munsee-Delaware nation; Valeen Jules is a queer birth worker and wood carver from the Nuu-chah-nulth and Kwakwaka’wakw nations; and Jaz Whitford is a Secwe̓pemc and mixed settler interdisciplinary artist. In sharing their poetry, they free their personal stories as well as their ancestors’ into the atmosphere.

Returning this year for children’s storytelling in the Cedar Grove are Quelemia Sparrow (xʷməθkʷəyəm) and Kung Jaadee (Haida). Quelemia Sparrow is a playwright and Leo Award-winning actor, and made appearances on TV shows such as Fringe and Da Vinci’s Inquest. She was also playwright-in-residence for Full Circle: First Nation’s Performance. Kung Jaadee is a professional storyteller, educator, and author who has been performing traditional Haida stories for the past 29 years.

Nêhiyaw/Cree, Nahkawiniw/Saulteaux artist and storyteller Renae Morriseau from Treaty 1 territory will also share stories at the Cedar Grove stage. She has worked across Canada and internationally with her singing group, M’Girl. She currently instructs Indigenous film studies at Capilano University and continues to create her own work in music and film with a community-first approach.

Indigenous-led collective Nations Skate Youth will offer free skateboarding demos and youth workshops at Flag Pole Plaza.

Inside the RBC Cinema, 17 films will be screened throughout the day. The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, the world’s largest presenter of Indigenous screen content, brings Indigenous-made film works to communities across Turtle Island through their Tour Program. ʔəm̓i ce:p xʷiwəl is proud to showcase five short films from their Youth program and six films from their Elders program. 

Follow the festival on Facebook for more information.

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