FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Festival Afloat supports Indigenous justice

Details: Published on Sunday, 29 November -0001 16:00; Written by editor

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From: RAVEN <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
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A socially distanced, on-the-water, paddle powered festival in support of Indigenous legal challenges

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Floating Concert Series to support Indigenous legal challenges

Victoria: July 22 and 29, 2021 Victoria Canoe and Kayak Club. Details: https://raventrust.com/victoria-float-up-concerts-july-22-and-july-29/

Vancouver: August 14, 2021 Jericho Beach Sailing Center. Details: https://raventrust.com/paddle-up-to-the-providence-for-a-vancouver-concert-afloat/

Montreal: August 21, 2021 Le Livart, Rue St. Denis. Details: https://raventrust.com/montreal-paddles-on-dry-land-for-indigenous-rights/

Victoria, BC - Indigenous rights charity RAVEN (Respecting Aboriginal Values and Environmental Needs) is presenting a unique, pandemic-friendly Floating Concert Series this summer. As communities emerge from over a year of Covid isolation, these unique outdoor, socially distanced, on-the-water concerts are springing up from Montreal to Toronto to Vancouver.

“After a challenging year of separation and uncertainty, the Festival Afloat offers people a way to come together in a creative, safe, and supportive way,” says RAVEN’s Communications Director Andrea Palframan. “These on-the-water, socially distanced, paddle-powered events also give folks a tangible way to stand in support of First Nation’s access to justice, to level the playing field so that Indigenous rights and stewardship values can be upheld by the courts.”

The series, dubbed “Festival Afloat”, kicked off with a show on Salt Spring Island with Bill Henderson (UHF, Chilliwack) on July 15th, 2021. Shows are also taking place in Victoria (July 22 and 29th), Montreal (August 21), Toronto (date TBD) and Vancouver (August 14). The concerts are fundraisers, with proceeds providing legal defence funds for Indigenous Nations who are taking to the courts to defend their rights and protect their lands and waters.

Attendees are invited to float up on their kayaks, canoes, row boats or stand-up paddleboards to enjoy diverse music, poetry and storytelling. In Montreal, organizers are hosting an on-land event which will ‘float’ on the sounds of a jazz quartet. In Vancouver, paddlers will head out from Jericho Beach to surround “The Providence,” a 1903 tall sailing ship that serves as the floating stage for the evening.

Says Palframan, “RAVEN exists so that Indigenous Nations don’t have to go it alone when in court going toe to toe with governments or industry in order to defend Treaty or Aboriginal rights and push back against environmentally damaging projects. Thanks to our wonderful festival sponsors Denman Island Chocolate, Green City Builders, Fatso, Persephone Brewing and Hide and Seek Coffee, all funds raised through tickets and donations for this event will be matched, doubling our impact.”

Supporters of RAVEN have donated millions of dollars to fund legal challenges that have stopped pipelines, halted open-pit mines and protected hundreds of thousands of hectares of Indigenous People’s traditional territories. This summer, RAVEN is building on this momentum, with a goal to support Heiltsuk Nation in its legal challenge launched in the wake of the 2016 Nathan E. Stewart spill, and West Moberly First Nations, which is preparing for a landmark treaty challenge to the Site C Dam project.

“I think that having a really strong sense of cross-community connections that have been built makes us feel so much more empowered: knowing that we have allies in the wider world, stronger relationships with our Nations up and down the coast, and a really strong sense of our own capacity as a Nation to stand up, to fight, and to win,” says Jess Housty of Heiltsuk Nation.

Saul Brown, Haíɫcístut Reconciliation Negotiator with Heiltsuk Nation, agrees. “One of the upsides of these fights is that they have created the wonderful opportunity to bring an awful lot of good people together. And as we move forward into our history, our coalitions and alliances are becoming a lot more broad based, and collectively we are taking ownership of the fact that this is our home. And our home is worth defending. It’s worth fighting for: environmental issues are something that impact all of us.”

Festival Afloat is a means to uplift Indigenous land and water protection, by providing resources to the Nations whose stewardship values show a way forward for sustainability and right relationships with the Earth. RAVEN offers a stepping off point for settlers on the long walk to making relationships right, by activating communities to turn their awareness of racial and colonial oppression into purposeful deeds.

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RAVEN is a Victoria-based charitable organization that supports Indigenous legal challenges across Canada. It’s our mission to raise legal defence funds to assist Indigenous Peoples who enforce their rights and title to protect their traditional territories. Our work helps to provide access to justice for Indigenous Peoples.

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