Haw yah hawni naw, Prince Rupert BC, 1967-1986 In 1967 Chief Kenneth Harris and Margaret Harris began the Haw yah hawni nah Festival in Prince Rupert, B.C. The festival’s establishment was a pivotal moment in the revival of Indigenous culture in the Northwest Coast of B.C., having followed the lifting of the Potlatch Ban.
Coastal Dance Festival Vancouver BC, 2008-present In 2008, the festival was re-born as the Coastal Dance Festival. Indigenous artists from the West coast, as well as, regional, national, and international artists, including artists from New Zealand, Australia, Ecuador, Peru, Norway, have been invited to share their art forms, allowing the Coastal Dance Festival to connect with a global community of Indigenous dance. The Coastal Dance Festival contributes to the landscape of contemporary dance festivals with CDF’s unique focus on customary and contemporary Indigenous dance. The festival strengthens the Indigenous dance community from across the coast, as well the Yukon and Alaska, who share a common ancestry and dance form, as well as, serving artists on a national and international level. CDF allows for a cultural appropriate presentation of Indigenous dance that showcases the artistic strength within these dance forms, where cultural protocols and sensitivity to the sharing and witnessing of stories, songs and dance are honoured.
