LAUNCH OF HONOURING OUR GRANDMOTHERS HEALING JOURNEY
Further We Rise Collective with Sacred Rock launch the three-year project Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey with three days of ceremony, teachings, storytelling and art respecting Mother Earth in Oppenheimer Park.  We are honouring Grandmothers who travelled to the Downtown Eastside; grandmas who’ve passed on; and grandmas who are with us now and their life stories. Through arts and ceremony, we are honouring our Grandmothers’ role of caring for us all: the land, water, wild salmon, people, plants and animals that provide us with food. The launch is produced by Further We Rise Collective/Sacred Rock in partnership with Vancouver Moving Theatre (Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival).

For full event details, visit the events section on this website.

All events are free.

Friday November 5, 10am--4pm. Oppenheimer Park (1pm; Opening Ceremony)

Saturday November 6, 10am-4pm. Oppenheimer Park (2pm; Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey, History and Vision Presentation)

Sunday November 7, 10am-12pm. Sending Off Ceremony, Oppenheimer Park

HONOURING OUR GRANDMOTHERS HEALING JOURNEY 2021-2023

Further We Rise Collective is an art, history and language collaboration between four Indigenous generations. Sacred Rock is a supporter of Further We Rise with their projects and programs. The vision of Sacred Rock is to connect Nlaka’pamux arts, cultural heritage, language, health, education, and the natural environment. 

Further We Rise/Sacred Rock are inviting Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, grassroots organizations, businesses and communities to participate and support the future journey of the travelling message chests over the next three years. 

The Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey will culminate in 2023 with ceremonies at the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival, then continue up the Fraser and Thomson River watersheds back to the grandmothers’ homelands in the mountains where their spirits and memories will be respectfully laid to rest.

Further We Rise Collective/Sacred Rock
Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey
Oppenheimer Park, 400 Powell

Friday November 5

10am – 4pm
Artwork, Projects and Healing Journey Information
Artwork by Irene Adams, Nadine Spence, Roger Spence, Autumn Walkem, Tamara Archie and other guests. 

1pm - 1:30pm Welcome
Stephen Lytton and Festival Elder in Residence Kat Norris welcome Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Journey travelling message chests and their creators to Oppenheimer Park in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. 

Everyone is invited to contribute messages to the travelling message chests, in honour, grief and celebration: letters, stories, songs, images, or poems addressed to grandmothers, ancestors, and families, to the lands, waters and salmon. These messages will be properly respected, released and laid to rest.  

Saturday November 6

10am – 4pm Artwork, Projects and Healing Journey Information

2pm - 4pm Stories from Our Grandmothers
Honouring the history and vision of Our Grandmothers Healing Journey. With a welcome and land acknowledgement by Victor Guerin (Musqueam), and with MC Suzette Amaya, Stephen Lytton, Autumn Walkem, honor chest youth guardians, and guests from throughout BC.

Sunday November 7

10am - 12pm Sending Off Ceremony
Ceremony to release with cleansings and blessings, the Honouring Our Grandmothers travelling message chests for their three-year journey travelling BC.   

NOTICE OF CANCELLATION – 7th Annual Wild Salmon Caravan at Strathcona Park, Saturday, November 6.
The Wild Salmon Caravan has announced with regret their need to postpone until early 2022 the 7th annual Wild Salmon Caravan events originally scheduled for Nov. 6 in Strathcona Park. The Wild Salmon Caravan wishes the Honouring Our Grandmothers Healing Launch nothing but greatness at this year's Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival in Oppenheimer Park, Nov. 5-7.