Tasha Faye Evans

Walbran Witness, a week-long Festival of Arts in the heart of an Old Growth Rainforest.

A gathering of artists from city of Vancouver trekked into the heart of Xax:iks, Walbran Valley in the summer of 1998 and 1999. Together we spent a week long artist residency creating art amongst these ancient trees and fresh rushing waters. Camped in in the clear cut dancers, poets, playwrights, photographers, clowns and musicians responded to the spirit of this ancient forest and the threat of deforestation. Our first year we created the portrait Spirit of the Trees photographed by Chris Jones, with twenty three artists. In 1999 we collaborated to create Walbran Witness written by Kendra Fanconi, a dance theatre piece that was included in the Uts’am Witness Project and performed in the Elaho Valley. A medicine wheel I created during this time can be visited today and remains a place of inspiration for many land defenders in the resistance to preserve what’s left of our sacred old growth forests on Vancouver Island.