Main Stage and Roving Performers (Festival Day)
Schedule
11 AM – 4 PM: Opening by Senaqwila Wyss, Marketplace, Kids Zone, Food Trucks
12:30 PM: 20th Anniversary Cake
1:30 PM: Watermelon Eating Contest
3:30 PM: Raffle Prize Draw
3:45 PM: Closing Ceremony
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Opening by Senaqwila Wyss
Senaqwila Wyss is an ethnobotanist, warrior entrepreneur, and co-owner of Raven and Hummingbird Tea Co. She is from the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation), Tsimshian, Stō:lo, Hawaiian and Swiss, and will soon graduate with her Bachelors in Communications and First Nations studies at SFU.
With her mother, traditionally trained ethnobotanist T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss, Senaqwila uses Indigenous plant teachings and shares that knowledge with people of all ages, particularly with her young daughter Kamaya. She is also learning the Squamish language in an effort for her daughter to become a fluent speaker.
CW Music School
CW Music & Performing Arts School is celebrating 20 years of Music Education! We are excited to perform once again at Collingwood Days and share the lively music of our Youth Rock bands!
The students of these two bands range in age from 10 to 17.
The CW Rockband Performance Program is award-winning with students previously featured on CTV, Vancouver TV, at Canada Place and Playland for the promotion of Universal Pictures’s Despicable Me 3 and in the Philippines benefiting a charity to support at-risk children and their education.
Peter Yap
I have been doing my Elvs Presley tribute for Collingwood Days since it was held at Carlton Elementary School.
I have performed at the PNE Seniors’ Talent Contest, Numerous retirement homes, Weddings, Church fundraising events, Miss BC Pageant and many other functions.
Hula and Storytelling Performances
Rani Wangsawidjaya
Poh Tan and Rani Wangsawidjaya immigrated to Vancouver when they were little from Malaysia and Indonesia, respectively. They met decades ago as students of Josie de Baat’s hula school: Halau Kia’i O Ka Hula. They connected with hula at different life stages, Rani in her adolescence and Poh in her young adult life. Hula became intertwined with their lives both professionally and personally. They learned through their teacher that hula is not just a type of dance, but a way of being and living in this world; with love, care, trust, generosity, and respect for others and nature. As a way of giving back to the community they grew up in, Rani and Poh would like to share their Aloha and hula practice with others.
Join Poh Tan and Rani Wangsawidjaya as they share their Aloha and hula practice. Hula is not only a way to move your body. It is a way to connect to one another, to our ancestors, and to continue the knowledge and ways of being to our children. In today’s performance, we are sharing love songs for Pele, a Hawaiian goddess, and her land, and a love letter for their late hula teacher, Josie de Baat.
Bryant Doradea/HK
HK aka Higher Knowledge is a Hip Hop artist, Youth Worker, Grassroots Community Organizer residing in Coast Salish territories on Canada’s West Coast. Ancestrally, he is Indigenous to Kuskatan(El Salvador) on his father’s side and to Collasayu(Chile) on his mother’s side with roots in Spain and Romania as well. The complexities of his mixed Indigenous/immigrant identities, state of existential diaspora, as well as his traumatic upbringing fuels a lot of the themes in his music. His lyrics tell the tale of a youth growing up street entrenched, in foster care, gang affiliated, as well as struggling with relationships and mental health. HK connects to others who can relate and uses his music to fulfill the purpose creator intended for him.
Lao dance group from SEACHS
The Southeast Asian Cultural Heritage Society (acronym “SEACHS”, pronounced “SEECH”) was founded in 2009 to create spaces for and elevate the artistry of underrepresented performers. SEACHS is always on the lookout to expand its roster of Southeast Asian artists. If you like what you see and wish to join, don’t hesitate to reach out to any of the artists after the performance. Their art is communal, intercultural and interdisciplinary. They rehearse really hard to share and celebrate Southeast Asian culture.
(Vietnamese:)
For Collingwood Days, the Vietnamese performers of SEACHS have prepared
-A Conical Hat Dance
-A Round Hat Dance and
-A famous song called “Hello Vietnam”, sung not only in Vietnamese, but in English and French as well!
Balkan Shmalkan
Balkan Shmalkan is East Vancouver’s sweet dance party orchestra; think global music with local attitude. Their funky brass dance beats are rooted in the aural traditions of the Roma and Klezmorim of Eastern Europe and blended with a mixture of pop and jazz. Members of the group sing in 5 languages including Serbian, Romani, and Italian. The group contains six to twelve musicians playing reed, brass and percussion instruments of both eastern and western origin.
Balkan Shmalkan is the brain child of a group of musicians with a long history of collaboration in traditional South Serbian Trubaci music. This project is a way of blending that music with other vibrant traditions and bringing it to the general population of Greater Vancouver.
Balkan Shmalkan is exceptionally versatile and mobile, playing on and off stage with nothing more than the power of their lungs and a few horns.
Melanny Banda
Melanny Banda is a 19-year-old singer-songwriter. From her early childhood, Melanny discovered her passion for music through her enrollment in piano lessons, and since then music has grown to become a major aspect of her life. Melanny has performed at various events including the Richmond Night Market, Open Mics, and Talent Shows and she hopes to continue her journey in the music industry with many more performances to come.
Waacking Group
Buckle up and embrace the turbulence! Because this group of dancers are coming in hot. This will be their first performance as new generation Punkers and they are bringing in all the heat with arms, pose and groove. Spread self love and w*ack your negativity away!
Kin Balam
As a fourth generation musician, I was fortunate to have begun playing music since before my memory was grounded into my psyche, and therefor to me, music was always a game I had learnt to play beyond the structural, and stylistic rules of its physical layout. It was
always about the energy and frequency in its purest state, which also applied to my own musical conscientious or sub conscientious state within its “in the moment” grasp.
I was born in El Salvador’s last civil war in the 1980’s, where the Guerrilla, and rightwing military dictatorship collided in their struggle for power. My father is a survivor of military torture, and imprisonment, and my mother raised my sister and I alone, who also experienced deep childhood trauma, abuse, as well as war firsthand. I grew up in Canada, in the marginalized non-white demographics, which harbored poverty, oppression, and violence. This context was the first source of my musical library which led me to Latin American revolutionary music, Franz Liszt, Salsa, and Hip hop. My musical mind began through an intersection of cultural and historical realities, which are perhaps a unique combination.
Stilt Walkers
Watch in awe as Still Moon’s birds soar and swoop from up above! Our birds come in many shapes and sizes, from the itty bitty Northern Flicker to the stoic, endangered Whooping Crane. Hold onto your fries, or the pesky seagull will get ‘em! They like to travel in flocks, so don’t miss your opportunity to say hello and snag a photo before they spread their wings and fly away. Fun fact: many of our stilters made their own costumes!
Tiddley Cove Morris Dancers & Musicians
Tiddley Cove Morris Dancers & Musicians reinterpret the ancient English ritual traditions of Morris dancing in a contemporary West Coast style. We are a diverse and welcoming group, playing music, dancing and singing, doing mummers’ plays and wassailing apple trees in colourful costumes, with stick and hankie dances and lively tunes. For more than 30 years, we have danced the sun up on May Morning, serenaded the winter trees in apple orchards, and performed at events and festivals. We always welcome new dancers, musicians and mummers to join us!
