Snuneymuxw Days shares culture with Nanaimo community

An exciting weekend of culture, tradition and competition returns to the region as Snuneymuxw Days is set to take place from Friday, July 24 to Sunday, July 26.

Each year, organizers say the event grows to include more activities that showcase Snuneymuxw culture and promote health and wellbeing, with the centrepiece of Snunyemuxw Days being the war canoe races. 

The races take place at “The Point” (Needham Street and Shoreline Drive) where hundreds of paddlers of all ages race in traditional wooden canoes along the waterfront of Snuneymuxw First Nation’s Indian Reserve #1. While the war canoe races have been part of Snuneymuxw tradition for generations, organizers say they went idle for a couple of years before coming back bigger and better for the weekend of festivities on Snuneymuxw lands.

Now in its fifth year, Snuneymuxw Days event organizers have added a marketplace, kids zone and a basketball tournament in the Snuyneymuxw First Nation Gym. New this year is a soccer tournament that will be played on various fields throughout Nanaimo. 

“The whole event is geared around health and wellness — so being able to model that and show our young ones that are coming up that living a good life is a good life,” said Kate Good, Snuneymuxw Days event director.

Promoting positive activities for youth

Festivities kick off on Friday at noon with canoe races followed by a feast and jam night at the Snuneymuxw Longhouse off Chartwell Road at 5 p.m. All are welcome to join the feast and jam, with attendees encouraged to bring their drums and song.

Saturday’s events will include a stuwíxwulhéw̓txw (kids zone) with bouncy castles, face painting and food trucks.

The event is drug and alcohol free and Good says the emphasis is on sport and giving young people something positive to do.

“Any kind of sport is going to save them,” Good told The Discourse. “It gives them something to do, something to look forward to, something to train for, something to shoot for.”

In addition to paddling, basketball and soccer, traditional games such as lahal — also known as the bone game — are also played. 

Sharing Snuneymuxw culture

Good said she wants people coming away from the event to have learned about and witnessed Snuneymuxw culture.

While she has seen people on social media make hurtful and negative comments about Indigenous people, she said that can be combatted by showcasing the many positives Snuneymuxw people have to share. She said the weekend’s events can help people learn who Snuneymuxw are, what they do and what they practice.

“This is a way to profile us in a good way,” she said.

The events also include a viewing station that was built on even ground along the shore with shade for elders to watch the canoe races and be included in the festivities. 

“I really just hope that this continues to grow because if you saw it in year one to year five now, it has blown up. You know, we’re moving out into urban Nanaimo now. We’re not just on our reserve,” Good said.