Three years ago, xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) and UBC’s Chan Centre worked in collaboration to host the first ʔəm̓i ce:p xʷiwəl (Come Toward the Fire), a free-entry festival celebrating the resilience and talent of North America/Turtle Island’s Indigenous peoples.
Alternative rock musician Black Belt Eagle Scout and Reservation Dogs composer and rapper Mato Wayuhi headlined a host of Indigenous performers at last year’s festival. This year, R&B folk musician Celeigh Cardinal and singer-songwriter Sebastian Gaskin brought home the third annual festival on September 14.
2024’s Come Toward the Fire opened with an address on the Chan Centre’s River Grass Stage from xʷməθkʷəy̓əm and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil Waututh) poet Christie Lee Charles. Charles, Vancouver’s first local Indigenous poet laureate as of 2018, performed at the first Come Toward the Fire festival in 2022.
Charles began this year’s festivities by urging the audience, “ʔəm̓i ce:p xʷiwəl, come toward the fire.” She gave brief recounts of the land’s history — q̓ələχən (Wreck Beach) and its importance to the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm people as an outpost on the Fraser River, transformer stones Slhx̱i7lsh (Siwash Rock) and Xá:ytem (Hatzic Rock) and their importance as sites of learning and spiritual change.
The first musical event of the festival took the stage soon after. A powerful four-part harmony reverberated from behind the stage and six members of family song and dance group Tsatsu Stalqayu (Coastal Wolf Pack), made their way to the front. It was striking how well the performers’ voices carried before they had even approached the microphones.
The group, four adults and two children dressed in handmade traditional Coast Salish regalia, sang paddle songs, a welcome song and a gathering song, keeping time on hand drums and at times descending from the stage to dance closer to the audience. Between performances they explained the significance of each piece. The “Women’s Gathering Song,” meant to honour the berries and plants that the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm people use to make medicine, was a highlight, with its dynamic call-and-response between the group’s low and high register vocalists.
After Tsatsu Stalqayu, Christie Lee Charles returned to welcome producer and rapper MJScottS with fellow YVR emcee IronRhino. The juxtaposition of traditional Coast Salish music with an energetically modern Vancouver act like MJScottS’s helped to bring the present and future of Indigenous music in conversation with its heritage.
MJScottS had the more engaging flows of the two performers, slow and relaxed but still rhythmic and driving in the verses, and a few of his beats incorporated melodies in interesting ways. I couldn’t help wishing I’d seen the duo at a venue better suited to their music — the mics were harsh, cutting, clearly not set properly for these vocals, and the sitting-room-only setup with the Chan Centre’s family atmosphere undercut the energy slightly.
Leaving the River Grass Stage, festival goers were met with rows of tables where local Indigenous-owned businesses displayed books, baking, beads and bath salts among other wares. The Chan Centre had a stall selling vinyls and CDs from some of the more prominent musicians performing this year.
Outside, food trucks offered Indigenous and settler cuisine (Golden Bannock in particular boasted a line around the block), and Nations Skate Youth offered skateboarding workshops in a fenced off section of the flagpole square. Book and poetry readings organized by Massy Books, film screenings in the Royal Bank Cinema and more performances on the River Grass Stage by Sister Ray, Digawolf and more, took place throughout the rest of the day.
That evening Sebastian Gaskin and Celeigh Cardinal closed the festival out with headline performances in the Chan Shun Concert Hall. Gaskin showed off his dynamic vocal range and impressive guitar solos with catchy, well-produced pop-rock in the vein of The New Pornographers. His and his band’s performance was slightly undercut by a very heavy backing track that at times made it hard to distinguish what was actually live.
Cardinal brought thoughtful lyrics with powerful soul vocals, backed by a talented band who went beyond merely a supporting act.
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