With the memory of Tribal Journeys 2017 still fresh, Band member and paddler James Quatell is rounding up a team to participate in next year’s event.
Tribal Journeys 2018 will be hosted by the Puyallup Tribe of Washington State. Puyallup is south of Seattle. It will be a paddle of approximately 500 kilometres, so James says it’s not too soon to start practicing. Nor is it too soon to start planning the fundraising required to underwrite the costs of about 28 paddlers (who work in two shifts a day) and their support team.
Puyallup Tribe will welcome the canoe families between July 28 and Aug. 4. The 2018 Tribal Journeys will mark the event’s 20th anniversary. The 2018 theme is “Honoring Our Medicine.”
It’s a theme James can identify with. Before his first Tribal Journeys experience in 1994 he says: “I wasn’t very connected to our culture. There was no song in me. But that journey connected me back to my uniqueness.”
For those considering participating, he says: “It’ll be with you for the rest of your life. It will make you aware of your own true self.”
As part of the preparations for Tribal Journeys 2018, James hopes to organize training for participants – particularly the youth – to make their own paddles. This will connect participants with traditions and knowledge about art and family histories.
Anyone interested in participating in Tribal Journeys 2018 is asked to contact James at jamesquatell@yahoo.ca or 250-202-1414.