Diversity celebrated at festival

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The Victoria Native Friendship Centre is again joining forces with the Royal British Columbia Museum to host the First People's Festival from Aug. 9 to 11.

This is the 18th year for the festival, one of the largest urban Aboriginal gatherings in the country.

"It's a celebration of friendship and understanding. The idea of the festival is to showcase First Nations culture in a positive setting while also providing education to the general community about First Nations people," said Leslie McGarry, culture and community relations director for the friendship centre.

"The idea of the festival is to showcase the diversity of cultures, because people tend to think that First Nations people across Canada are all the same. And British Columbia has the largest diversity of Aboriginal culture. So we try to let people know that, and break down some stereotypes of First Nations people. They don't all live in tipis."

The festival takes place at the museum and in the surrounding plaza. Storytelling, an artists' market with demonstrations and works for sale, and traditional and contemporary performances will all be part of the festival, along with an activity area where children can take part in activities designed to teach them about Aboriginal culture. But that's not all the festival has to offer.

"We have carving demonstrations in the carving studio in Thunderbird Park. And we also have interpretive tours of the site," McGarry said. "A lot of people see the totem poles in Thunderbird Park, but don't really know where they came from, who carved them, what they represent, any of that kind of stuff, so we provide that at the festival as well."

Thunderbird Park, located next to the museum, was opened in 1941 and is home to an impressive display of totem poles and big houses.

While the festival is a celebration of all of the province's First Nations, there is a particular focus on the three island Nations - the Coast Salish, Kwakwaka'wakw, and Nuu-chah-nulth.

"We have the Kwakwaka'wakw people, the Coast Salish people and the Nuu-chah-nulth people presenting traditional performances in the Mungo Martin house, which is located on site," McGarry said.

First Nations from other parts of the province will also be represented at the festival.

"There's a fair number of representation from the province. We're trying to encourage more artists and performers to join us."

There is no charge to attend the festival, although donation boxes are set up around the site for anyone wanting to help organizers continue holding the annual event. The only part of the festival that may have a cost attached is the storytelling, which at press time was to take part in the museum's First People's Gallery.

"This is meant to be very welcoming. It's also meant to be very family oriented . . . say you have three children or something and you want to see a performance, we don't want people to have to pay 20, 30 dollars just to do that. We'd rather this, see the performance, and then after you've seen the performance, then make a donation to the project so we can continue doing this."

The festival has proved very popular over the years, attracting up to 50,000 visitors to the three-day event.

"We've had really good feedback. Last year we did an evaluation with the visitors, the volunteers and the artists' market, and all of the feedback was very positive. The comments that came back from the visitors were please keep this tradition alive. Please keep doing this. Because its really important," McGarry said.

The event is also very popular among First Nations artists, some of whom have been coming back to take part in the festival year after year.

"There's a full range of experience in the artist market, from internationally renowned reputations to people who are just starting up. And the one thing that they like about the festival is that we try to be as respectful of tradition and culture as possible. So we really adhere to cultural autenticity and integrity in the artist market as well.

"So, for example, we don't have people from Haida Gwaii selling dream catchers, because it's not part of the culture. And the same way, we wouldn't allow someone from the Cree Nation to be carving totem poles, because it's not part of their culture."

One of the new features of this year's festival will be a showcase of documentaries and videos produced or directed by Aboriginal people, which will be held in the Clifford Carl Hall next to the museum lobby.

"The whole idea is to bring education and understanding in a real welcoming setting. And we've maintained that for 18 years to make sure that people feel comfortable."

For more information call the Victoria Friendship Centre at 250-384-3211 and ask for Leslie McGarry or Corrina Neuwirth.