New Indigenous music festival presented by the Coastal First Nations Great Bear Initiative is available online for free. The inaugural Miáci: Canned Salmon Music Festival takes place this weekend, featuring a stellar roster of Bella Bella and Haida Gwaii-based Indigenous musicians.

The evening features Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Candace Curr, Carsen Gray, Drezus, Hayley Wallis, Jason Camp, and the Poseurs, Kristi Lynn Sinclair, Murray Porter, and Saltwater Hank. The Coastal First Nations Great Bear Initiative is hosting a festival to honor Indigenous stewardship concepts in relation to wild Pacific salmon stocks and First Nations’ territorial rights and ownership. The Great Bear Initiative Society is governed by a board of directors that includes one person individually from the nine countries that make up the organization. The event also includes Salmon Nation and Raven.
The event is sponsored by Rogers Media and also features artists and storytellers. Bella Bella, Kitasoo, Haida Gwaii, and other settlements are represented. Aside from the music, there will be recordings of Indigenous elders and community leaders discussing the significance of salmon in their culture. “To better introduce Canadians to environmental management of traditional areas and to recognize Indigenous-led conservation projects in the region,” says the festival’s strategic goal.
On a pay-what-you-can basis, donations are asked. The Wet’suwet’en Land Protectors Legal Defense Fund receives 100% of the proceeds.

An intriguing new Indigenous music event aims to raise awareness about First Nations salmon care and other environmental issues. On BC’s North and Central Coasts, the Coastal First Nations Great Bear Initiative supports community self-sufficiency, sustainable economic growth, improved local ownership and management of forests and fisheries, and culture and environment protection. The Great Bear Rainforest, one of the world’s largest temperate coastal rainforest systems, is home to its constituent communities’ traditional territory.

The event is all about spreading the word about Indigenous stewardship and conservation of the Great Bear Rainforest and all of the hard work that many different Nations put in to guarantee that the salmon and trees are maintained.