Tasha Faye Evans

Coast Salish Cultural events and educational workshops showcasing local Coast Salish artists and Knowledge Keepers fostering a shared and sacred responsibility to care for all of our relations.

Hosted in partnership with the Port Moody Ecological Society, people gathered on the land and water to learn about Coast Salish values and experience what it means to be part of all of our relations. Programming began in 2017 with a series of educational workshop that culminated into the design for Saymahmit, a house post carved by James Harry. This house post was given as a gift by the community to Tsleil Waututh Nation. Chief Maureen Thomas requested we raise Saymahmit at Noons Creek to honour the Tsleil Waututh village that was once there and to stand as a constant reminder of our community’s commitment to joining their legacy of caring for their ancestral territories.

Stakw: Water is Life offered a series of workshops about water that brought together 250 community members in canoes lead by Ta7ah in a prayer for the inlet on National Indigenous Peoples Day.

Xapayay: Tree of Life culminated in an online festival of art during COVID and showcased five local Coast Salish expressions about Cedar.

All of the Welcome Post Project programming honours National Indigenous Peoples Day in ceremony, with the whole community of Port Moody coming together to Feast and prepare gifts for a Give Away, hosting over a thousand people each year.

 

Cease Wyss, Ocean Hyland, Tasha Faye Evans and James Harry in front of the Saymahmit House Post

"The Welcome Post Project began as a project I designed for my childrens’ school, with Cease Wyss walking the whole school through the forest and teaching about all of our relations. Then Xwalacktun went into each classroom and taught about Coast Salish symbols. The children helped Xwalacktun design a house post and every child got to carve on it too!

Upon reflection, the children said some wonderful things that included, “All First Nations People love Mother Nature!”, “All First Nations people are such good artists” and “We are all family”. However, the parents had different things to say. They requested Xwalacktun donate a painting because we paid him so much for a piece of wood. This lack of respect and blatant racism led me to take the Welcome Post Project model and offer it to the whole community. I have seen the transformative power of art—so much healing has happened since then."

— Tasha Faye Evans