In its fourth year, Festival Afloat is back — so grab your paddle for Indigenous justice!

GET TICKETS at raventrust.com/paddle

If you aren’t in one of the spots where Festival Afloat touches down, you can still be part of things by supporting Heiltsuk Nation: we welcome your ideas for fundraisers in your own town (Neighbourhood garage sale? Fun run? Karaoke night?), or use our handy online tools to create a crowdfunder to help this resilient coastal Nation with their game changing marine protection case. 

As much as we’d love to just be in celebration mode — let’s be real: there are environmental disasters taking place all across the country. As wildfire season ramps up, millions of people are waking up under Martian skies, with this year already one of the worst we’ve experienced.

What we are really seeing is a direct result of colonialism. Indigenous Peoples, whose ecological stewardship has had to come face to face with relentless extractive industry, have continued to centre cultural practices that care for the land, water, people, and our more-than-human kin — now and into the future. We are honoured here at RAVEN to be able to offer a pathway to support that resilience, resistance, and repair: thank you for being part of this movement. 

Whether we are Indigenous or settlers, we can take the time to learn from Indigenous Knowledge Keepers about the stories of the lands we live on. That’s why we’re so excited to be bringing passionate and knowledgeable elders and educators aboard the tall ship Providence to lead small group tours, illuminating human connections and the life-worlds of our more-than-human kin on the Salish Sea. Right now, we are offering an early bird rate with $50 off of sailing adventures for our RAVEN inner circle: get your tickets before June 19th to save.

This year all ticket sales will go towards supporting Heiltsuk Nation’s legal challenge. Launched in the wake of the horrific Nathan E. Stewart spill, Heiltsuk’s challenge asserts Aboriginal Title to the seabed and foreshore in the spill area. Heiltusk’s actions open new possibilities for all maritime Nations: just last week, thanks to RAVEN-funded interventions by Heiltsuk and Haida Nations, a judge ruled that Indigenous jurisdiction could extend to ‘submerged lands’.  

We can amplify the voices, songs, and stories from Indigenous Nations. We can come together across differences and build a strong movement that cares for us all. Supporting Heiltsuk Nation in their legal case that just might set a precedent strengthening Indigenous governance across the country is definitely a good place to start.

All of this is why Festival Afloat feels so important this year: it’s an act of joy in disaster times. It’s a celebration of Indigenous resistance: though launched in the wake of an awful oil spill, Heiltsuk’s case — and the movement backing it — stands to strengthen Indigenous jurisdiction and empower caretakers whose laws and lifeways are devoted to sustaining the whole of life, for future generations. This community, that has grown to support that vision, is inspiring: let’s keep growing the movement. 

GET TICKETS at raventrust.com/paddle