Cedar Woman is a prayer in a long line of prayers. It is sx̌ʷəx̌ʷəy̓em̓, a Coast Salish story of ancestral resilience and hope, honouring our relationship with these lands and a legacy of matriarchs spanning all the way back to a cedar tree. Through song, dance, and ceremony, Tasha Faye Evans and her ensemble call upon Cedar Woman, one of our first grandmothers who faced The Great Flood with fierce love. In this collective vision of hope for the future we remember our sacred responsibility to all our relations and protecting what we know from the depth of our soul to be sacred.

Chesha7 iy lha mens translates as “the mothers and daughters,” which represents this group as they are a family of grandmothers, mothers, and daughters. They continue their journey to learn their culture through songs and stories and to become confident in speaking their language. Their cultural ties are woven between Skwxwu7mesh, Sto:Lo, Tsimsian, Hawaiian, and Swiss peoples. Chesha7 iy lha mens represent and share their cultural songs and dances in the best way to teach and revitalize their culture for the generations to come.

The Chinook Song Catchers are an Indigenous dance group that descends from the Squamish and Nisga’a nations. This dynamic dance group has been representing their heritage at major venues in Vancouver for over fourteen years. Performing at multi-cultural festivals and art celebrations; and conducting welcoming ceremonies for international guests to Vancouver. The Chinook Song Catchers have traveled to international events as ambassadors of our respected nations, traveling to Japan, Taiwan, Switzerland, Italy, and Turkey.

The Dakhká Khwáan Dancers are a National Award-winning Inland Tlingit dance group based out of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, led by Marilyn Yadultin Jensen. They focus on reclaiming their languages and traditional values through their inherent art form of singing, drumming, dancing, and storytelling. The Dakhká Khwaán Dancers strive to present their performance with the outmost respect to cultural protocol and with the highest form of artistic integrity. Since forming in the community of Carcross in 2007, they have grown significantly including dancers from the Inland Tlingit communities of Teslin and Atlin. Together, they have danced across Canada, the US, New Zealand, Taiwan, the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and the Pam Am Games in 2015. The group received the 2014 National Aboriginal Cultural-Tourism Award and were nominated for an Indigenous Music Award in their collaborative work with DJ Dash for their album, Deconstruct Reconstruct in 2018.

The Dancers of Damelahamid is an Indigenous dance company from the Northwest Coast of British Columbia with a rich history of masked dance that inspires a compelling performance. Through dramatic dance, captivating narrative, intricately carved masks, and elaborate regalia, the Dancers of Damelahamid transform time and space and bridge the customary with a living practice. Their full-length works include Setting the Path (2004), Sharing the Spirit (2007) and Visitors Who Never Left (2009). Newly created works include Spirit Transforming (2012), In Abundance (2014), Flicker (2016), Mînowin (2019), and Raven Mother (2024).

The Git Hayetsk Dancers are an internationally renowned dance group led in partnership by artist and carver Mike Dangeli (Nisga’a, Tsimshian, Tlingit, and Tsetsaut Nations) and Dr. Mique’l Dangeli (Tsimshian and Tlingit Nations), Assistant Professor of Indigenous Arts in the Department of Art History and Visual Studies at the University of Victoria. Git Hayetsk means “people of the copper shield” in Sm’algya̱x. The copper shield is the highest form of ceremonial wealth shared among their people. Their dancers are bonded by their connections to the Sm’algya̱x speaking peoples. Since 1999, they have shared their songs and dances at ceremonial and public events in urban and rural communities through Canada, the US, and abroad including Austria, Malaysia, Germany, and Japan.

Git-Hoan (People of the Salmon) was founded in 1996 by David Boxley, internationally recognized Alaskan Tsimshian Artist and Culture bearer. The group is composed of family and close friends from the Tsimshian, Tlingit, and Haida nations. The songs and dances are presented with an energetic and proud style that, while different from most contemporary dance groups, is based on ancient traditions that belong to all coastal tribes. The Git Hoan Dancers showcase the magnificence of Tsimshian art, resurrect the practice of the culture, and educate the world that Native culture is diverse and a “living” art and culture. The Git Hoan performance is through song and dance sharing legends of the ancestors.

The Lax Kxeen Ts’msyen dance group is a cultural expression of the Ts’msyen (Tsimshian) people from the northwest coast of BC. For over 20 years, Christine Smith Martin has led the Lax Kxeen Ts’msyen dancers— now based in Vancouver—to gather, uphold, and carry Ts’msyen culture with pride. The name Lax Kxeen carries deep significance, as it is the Sm’algyax name for Prince Rupert—a place in which each group member holds strong ancestral lineages, keeping them rooted and connected to their home territories. What they share for others to witness is Ayaawx brought to life through song and dance. Ayaawx is the ancient Ts’msyen laws that continue to govern spiritual, social, and cultural ways of being. We thank you for witnessing and honouring these living teachings with us.

tuul gundlas cyaal xaada Rainbow Creek Dancers were named after a creek that runs behind the village of Massett on Haida Gwaii. The dance group was formed in 1980 by brothers Robert and Reg Davidson. Most of the early songs and dances were taught to Robert and Reg by their grandmother, Florence Edenshaw Davidson. The Rainbow Creek Dancers seek to bring meaning back to the songs and dances of their ancestors, performing them as they were taught by their elders, while also creating new songs and dances that build on the cultural foundation of their ancestors. Today, the Rainbow Creek Dancers dance masks created by Robert, Reg, and Ben Davidson in Haida Gwaii and throughout the world.

Sara Marielle Gaup grew up in Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino (Northern Norway/Sápmi) and is a traditional and modern juoigi (yoiker/sámi singer), an artist and a mother who also works with sámi crafts (duodji). She has been a central profile on the music scene during the past 20 years and has been a full-time juoigi for over 17 years. She is most known for being the vocalist and composer in the internationally known music groups Adjágas and Arvvas. Sara Marielle also collaborates with several artists, musicians and filmmakers in short-term projects and does workshops and traditional luohti-concerts (yoik, only voice). Sara Marielle is a strong voice for sámi environmental rights. She spent several weeks at Standing Rock, North-Dakota, supporting the First Nations protecting their water and land, together with her family.

Sara Marielle has an audiovisual art and music project together with her sister Risten Anine Gaup. They created OZAS as a continuance of their lifelong artistic collaboration, as a platform for their heart projects and cultural expressions, based on their shared values, passion and engagement.

Sarah Hunt / Tłaliłila’ogwa is a Kwakwaka’wakw writer, scholar, and activist. For more than two decades, Sarah has sought justice for Indigenous Peoples and communities. Her writing and research are grounded in queer feminist analysis and an ethically ‘undisciplined’ approach to scholarship spanning legal geography, political ecology, gender studies, and Indigenous politics.

Illustrating a wildly fascinating connection between the work of some Surrealist artists and Indigenous ceremonial masks from the Yup’ik and Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw nations, So Surreal: Behind the Masks goes on a journey from Turtle Island to Europe to find them.

Cree director Neil Diamond (Reel Injun, TIFF’09), accompanied by a cadre of interested parties including cultural preservation workers and art experts, journeys across the ocean to try to locate the Raven Transformation Mask, an invaluable cultural item that the northwest coastal community has previously had no luck tracking down.

Using illustration and engaging storytelling, Diamond tells how masks like this left their homelands, through trade and sale but also through theft. The documentary traces them from one prolific collector to museums and an antique store in New York — into which the German Surrealist Max Ernst wandered. He subsequently introduced the masks to his artist friends who, like him, became inspired. Kelly Boutsalis, TIFF

Lawra Somby, born in 1981, was taught the great gift of yoiking from his father, Ande Somby. Lawra started performing on a variety of stages in 1997, and he has performed his music both solo as well as with his father Ande, making him an experienced singer with a strong stage presence.

Spakwus Slolem are members of the Squamish Nation. The group presents a glimpse into their culture through singing, drumming, dancing, and audience participation. Spakwus Slolem is pleased and honoured to present songs and dances of yesterday, as well as today, and feel very honoured to represent their people in a good way as their Ancestors had intended. Spakwus Slolem has performed across the world, including Taiwan, Japan, Hawaii, and Europe.

Tsatsu Staqayu (Coastal Wolf Pack) is a young group of Coast Salish singers and dancers coming from across the Coast and throughout the lower mainland. They have members in their group from Musqueam, Nanaimo, Kuper Island, Cowichan, Tsartlip, just to name a few, which brings them all together to sing and dance and share a small part of their Coast Salish culture. Performing for the people brings happiness and joy to their hearts as they sing, dance and pray for each one of us.

The ‘Yisya̱’winux̱w Dancers are a professional, adult and youth dance group whose members represent many of the 18 tribes of the Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw. Many members live and work in Alert Bay, BC. They come together to ‘share’ traditional knowledge by invitation or special arrangement for private events. Although, ‘Yisya̱’winuxw is the most recent formed dance group of the Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw, many of their members have ‘shared’ professionally for over 20 years. Each of the ‘Yisya̱’winuxw dancers are initiated in their Potlatch ceremonies. The dances and songs they use in their performances are owned by the members, and families within their group.