After several years of friction between the Gitxsan and the Kispiox Music Festival, countless meetings and hours of dedication finally paid off as the two groups reconciled their differences and made amends in front of the gathered festival goers on Saturday.
Lead Festival Coordinator Bonnie McCleary said that the problems were a combination of things but the important fact was they were finally resolved.
“It was a disconnect in the relationship and there was upsetting things from both sides,” she said. “In the past people had tried to fix it but this year, the person that really made this happen was Tim Combs. He did the communicating, the meetings, setting things up, when things didn’t go well he went back and tried again to see a way to make it work and this time it did work.”
For president Tim Combs it has been a long process with great rewards.
“It’s gone on for many months and many meetings, phone calls and e-mails and it took a long time to really determine what process we could go through to resolve it,” he said. “So we decided to have the ceremony at the festival which was fitting as it is on their territory.”
The ceremony took place on Saturday afternoon on the River Stage during the festival and started by Combs explaining the situation and the need to work things out.
“As everyone knows who has been in relationships we have times of joy and times of confusion and sorrow,” he said to the crowd. “The Kispiox Music Festival is in a relationship with the house of Ma-uus because this wonderful festival is held on their traditional territory. In an effort to clarify and strengthen our relationship we are having this ceremony with you (the crowd) as our witnesses.”
They fashioned the ceremony to assemble an unbridled version of a Gitxsan feast, he said, and they stated their intentions and offered gifts as a lasting reminder of their words.
“The first gift represented our heartfelt intentions to have an open, honest and respectful relationship,” he shared. “The second gift represented our collective intention to acknowledge the house of Ma-uus as the traditional caretakers of the territory. The third gift represented our intentions to move forward and to let go of any hard feelings that may have arinsen during this trying time.”
For McCreery it was an emotional experience she said with a great outcome.
“It’s hard to explain,” she said. “In the Gitxsan way, whenever something has happened to hurt someone a shame feast is held and then there is an exchange of gifts which was the spirit of it. It was highly modified but we understand that by giving the gifts we said we know we hurt you and we are sorry and then by him excepting them the issue is resolved. It is quite powerful and it was actually quite emotional because it took so long to get there and it was hurting our organization to have problems and it feels so great to be back and working well together again.”
For Combs, it was the whole Board who made it possible and he is not only feeling happy to be moving forward in a positive way, he hopes things will continue in the future.
“It feels really good at this point and we really need to be clear with each other and communicate well from here on and hopefully it will go well,” he said. “Bill has worked hard with us and we look forward to the future working with him and the house of Ma-uus.”
As for the rest of the festival, the weekend was a total success on every level according to organizers and Combs and McCreery.
“Overall it was just excellent,” Combs said. “The energy was mellow and happy, there was no aggressive energy and people enjoyed the music and were good to each other. The performers were great and the weather even cooperated.”