You are invited to come and enjoy the 2023 K'ómoks Festival in the beautiful Comox Valley this National Indigenous Peoples Day June 21, 2023.

Invite your friends, bring your neighbours and head on down for an afternoon of fun in the Land of Plenty!

The K'ómoks Festival will provide an opportunity to gather and share in the art of storytelling, dance, culture, craftsmanship, heritage, stewardship and community!

Invite your friends, family and co-workers to come and spend an afternoon of outdoor fun with you in the beautiful Comox Valley.

Festival Event Details:

We will be coming together on June 21, 2023 to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day from 9AM - 7PM.

The Main Public Event is 3:00PM to 7:00PM. The full agenda is available on the website.
We will celebrate together through art, music, dance, workshops, kids zone, obstacle course, cardboard paddle making, storytelling, and delicious food... plus over $2,000 in door prizes!

Speaker Highlights:

• Keynote Speaker: Joanna Recalma, Qualicum and 'Namgis Family Law and Indigenous Rights.We are honoured to have Joanna Recalma as our Keynote Speaker for this year's festival. Joanna will share her thoughts on, Reconciliation and Reckoning within the Canadian Legal System. 
• ​Dr. Dorothy Kennedy: Place Names & Stories: History of the Merging of Two Indigenous Cultures. K’όmok place-naming is deeply rooted in human experience, in this instance, an experience involving merging two distinct cultures, one Salishan and the other Lekwiltok. 
  Join us as we explore those concepts in Dr. Dorothy Kennedy’s talk, The Storied Land of Plenty. Her presentation will be at 11:15 AM during the invitation-only morning program
• Panikpak Letitia Pokiak will be sharing a talk on Climate Change as part of our morning program at this year's festival. ​Panikpak is from Tuktuuyaqtuuq located in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, of the Western Arctic, North West Territories. As an Inuvialuk, she was raised traditionally in Inuvialuit Nunangat, her arctic homeland, which frames her lens and worldview.

K'ÓMOKS EDUCATION PANEL / 1:00 PM - 3:30 PM

Join us to hear from an amazing panel of Indigenous Educators who inspire, enlighten and encourage Indigenous people of all ages on the importance of education and the opportunities to help get us there! The panel discussion will include: Student Housing, Programs and Services and  Stories of Success

• Kelly Shopland – K’omoks First Nation Member, Executive Director – Indigenous Education, North Island College
• Lalita Kines – K’omoks First Nation Member, Director, Indigenous Strategic Priorities and Community Engagement, University of Victoria
• Caitlin Dyck – K’omoks First Nation Member, Research and Administrative Assistance, National Consortium for Indigenous Economic Development
• Brent Mainprize: The Importance of Indigenous Economic Development & the National Consortium for Indigenous Economic Development (NCIED).
• Susan Leslie – Mi’kmaw, Vice Chair, School District #71 Board Member
• Felicity Chitty, Education Coordinator, K’omoks First Nation, Anishinaabe, Ojibwe from Alderville First Nation

Supporting Organizations:

A very special thank you to our Band, sponsors and the volunteers from the Farmer's Kitchen, Lush Valley Food Action Society, Providence Health Care, MOSAIC Forestry Management, CIBC, North Island College, 98.9 Jet FM, Aldred Restaurants Ltd., Myra Falls, Department of National Defence, Providence Living, Chan Nowosad Boates Chartered Professional Accountants, Comox Valley Child Development Association, Village of Cumberland, Cowichan Valley Regional District, City of Courtenay, our Elders, Community Members & Comox Valley Community. You are amazing!

We are thrilled to announce this year's winner of our T-Shirt Logo Contest. A huge congratulations to Craig Simon, a Year 11 Student at Highland Senior Secondary School. Craig was born on Vancouver Island. He comes from the Anishinaabe people of the Upper Lake Huron area of Ontario. 

Craig chose to represent the K'ómoks land with the sea otters specific to the ocean landscape; and heron as he is from the Heron Clan. He drew it in Anishinaabe Woodland Style, as his Grandmother has in the past. 

The Anishinaabe peoples are divided into a number of doodeman, or clans, with Craig's ancestors being from the Heron Clan, their animal totem or doodem. 

In Anishinaabemowin, ode' means heart. Doodem or clan translates as 'the expression of, or having to do with one's heart.' From our hearts to you, Craig, you honour us by sharing your work and the artistic style of your Grandmother living on through you. 

Please join us in wishing him our heartfelt thank you for his wonderful submission. A very special thank you, too, to his amazing Art Teacher, Barbara Mareck. It warms our hearts to have someone like her in our community who works hard to inspire our youth. Barbara, you are amazing!
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Barbara will be showcasing Craig's work and the art from her other talented students at their school..

​DR. DOROTHY KENNEDY, ANTHROPOLOGIST & ETHNOHISTORIAN
THE STORIED LAND OF PLENTY: K’ΌMOK PLACE-NAMING & THE MERGING OF TWO DISTINCT CULTURES—SALISHAN & LEKWILTOK

K'ómoks First Nation today is made up of several formerly separate tribes—culturally K’ómoks and Pentlatch of Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

Dr. Dorothy Kennedy’s talk will share with us how the landscape provides the foundation of multiple forms of social knowledge—informing social practices, social systems, and social relationships, as well as the boundaries between them. 

We know that what is named and how it is named is culture-specific. Dr. Kennedy will share how local place names and associated stories evolved from the land and share insights—particularly those from her work with renowned Elder, Mrs. Mary Clifton and others reported, gleaned between 1971 and 1981—of how those practices have come to shape our home here in the Comox Valley.  

K’όmok place-naming is deeply rooted in human experience, in this instance, an experience involving merging two distinct cultures, one Salishan and the other Lekwiltok. 

Join us as we explore those concepts in Dr. Dorothy Kennedy’s talk, The Storied Land of Plenty. Her presentation will be at 11:15 AM during the invitation-only morning program at this year’s K’όmok Festival, June 21, 2023.

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ABOUT DR. DOROTHY KENNEDY

Dr. Dorothy Kennedy is an anthropologist and ethnohistorian specializing in the cultures and history of British Columbia’s Indigenous peoples. 
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Dr. Kennedy was awarded the Lieutenant Governor’s Medal at the University of Victoria for her award-winning master’s thesis on Coast Salish social organisation. She went on to complete her doctorate at the University of Oxford’s Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology. 
Her expertise relating to Indigenous peoples is relied upon by the Courts in deciding issues of Aboriginal Rights and Title and by First Nations in regulatory matters, claims, and cultural revitalization programs. 

Her fifty years of fieldwork includes research amongst the K’όmoks, working in the 1970s with renowned Elder, Mrs. Mary Clifton. Drawing from this research, undertaken with her husband/colleague, linguist and ethnographer Randy Bouchard, we are honoured to have Dr. Dorothy Kennedy present “The Storied Land of Plenty” at this year’s K’όmoks Festival.

The Yisya̱’winux̱w Dancers is a professional, adult and youth dance group whose members represent many of the 16 tribes of the Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw people.

Many members live and work in 'yalis, Alert Bay, a village on Cormorant Island, near the town of Port McNeill on northeast Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

The Yisya̱’winux̱w Dancers come together to perform by invitation or special arrangement for private events.

Although, Yisya̱’winuxw is the most recently formed dance group of the Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw Nation—though many members have performed professionally for over 20 years.

Each of the Yisya̱’winux̱w dancers is initiated in Potlatch ceremonies. The dances and songs shared in the performances are owned by the members, and families within the group.

Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw oral history shares that our ancestors (ʼnaʼmima) came in the forms of animals by way of land, sea, or underground. When one of these ancestral animals arrived at a given spot, it discarded its animal appearance and became human.

Animals that figure in these origin myths include the Thunderbird, his brother Kolas, the seagull, the orca, the grizzly bear, or the chief ghost. Some ancestors have human origins and are said to come from distant places. Some of the dances you may see share these stories. Witnessing them is a very special experience.
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You can see them on the Main Stage at the K'ómoks Festival 2023 on National Indigenous People's Day, June 21st at the Puntledge RV Campground, 4624 Condensory Road, Courtenay, British Columbia, Canada, V9J 1R6