On Day 6 of the trip, August 9 2016, we made our way to the tiny seaside town of Klemtu. Located on Swindle Island, the only way in or out of town is by boat or float plane. We loitered just offshore while our intrepid First Mate went ashore to inquire about docking… and came back to tell us we were all invited for a tour of their bighouse! So we were ferried ashore in the zodiac, and were greeted by some greatly appreciated drumming and singing by George Taylor (https://www.aboriginalbc.com/corporate/profiles/directors/george-taylor).
After everyone was ashore, we went up the hill and into the bighouse, a most impressive building that smelled beautifully and unforgettably of cedar (!). Wooden benches lined two of the walls, and the floor in the middle of the building was sand (one of my first thoughts when I saw it was, “It would be so cool to dance here.”). There were four large totem poles inside the building, two at each end (deliberately made to be asymmetrical to see if anyone was paying attention… my kind of craftsmanship!). The summer worker there gave us a history of the area, and showed us some handheld drums, handmade woven hats, and an amazing group drum made of a hollowed-out cedar log (in the picture, the log drum is between the two totem poles, just behind the bench).
And if that weren’t exciting enough, we were invited back that night for a canoe-blessing ceremony. They had a canoe that the Klemtu youth were going to take on a historical pilgrimage, and the day we were there was the day they were giving it its name. So we came back that night and got to witness the canoe-naming/canoe-blessing ceremony. It was great! I don’t recall the name they gave the canoe, but translated into English it means ‘Peace Maker’. And then after that… we got to watch a song and story performance in the bighouse by the Klemtu youth! How fortuitous is that? This was one of my highlights of the trip.
The youth performed a number of different songs and dances, and told a few of their traditional stories. Two of the youth, a boy and a girl, also received their traditional names that night, so we got to be part of that as well. And then (it just keeps going!) there was a Friendship Dance. It was the last dance of the night, and it was introduced as being “a dance for everybody… That means that we won’t stop dancing until everyone in the audience is dancing with us!” So cool! I wanted to be part of a dance since I first walked into the building, and here was the invitation! It was a whole lot of fun. Lots of laughter and mistakes and most surely some embarrassment, but such a great experience.
And then.
Remember the boy and the girl who received their traditional names? Well, since it was their celebration, they both got to pick a song for the night… and they jointly decided to do a Challenge Song (if you can see where I’m going with this, oh yes, it was magnificent). This was a competition between all the women and all the men in the room. That’s right, all of them. More audience participation! We all gathered around the hollow cedar drum, the men sitting around it drumming, and the women standing. And we would sing a line to them, then they would sing a line back to us, then we would row back with another line, then they would come out with their line again (the women’s lines varied, but the men repeated the same mantra the whole time…). We varied the speed, and whether or not the drum accompanied us. This was amazing! I can’t explain how enjoyable and satisfying and inclusive this was. It went on for quite some time! (In the end I think it was considered a draw.)
Such a good night. And one of the most special things about it was that it was unplanned. We just happened to stop in Klemtu that day, and they happened to be having a canoe-blessing ceremony and a performance night, which they invited us to. This is what I appreciate about life."
~Nicole E.
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