Festival History
By Canoe then & now.
Written by Sandra Bobb · Sq’éwqel Communications
Seabird Festival records go back to 1971. The history of First Nations festivals dates to before colonization. First Nation tribes would travel up and down the river by canoe to other tribes to compete in sports and games, to trade, to look for a spouse, to reconnect with family from other tribes, all while sharing stories and music.
Today’s festival circuit is much the same. Most do not travel by river to get to the festivals anymore, but we still bring the canoes and use them to compete.
Indigenous Sports & Culture
For thousands of years, Indigenous Peoples have played their own sports to teach survival and other life skills, for fun, and for competition. The First Nations’ contributions to Canadian sports are visible today in kayaking, canoeing, snowshoeing, swimming, wrestling, and lacrosse, a sport originally played by First Nations people on the east coast.
Soccer is the world’s most popular sport and one of the oldest known, beginning over 2,000 years ago in China. Records show the use of balls stuffed with grass, caribou hair, and moss in Alaska and Canada. In 1620, the natives in the Jamestown settlement played a game called pasuckaukohowog (they gather to play ball with the foot). The rough game was played on the beach, half a mile wide, with goals a mile apart and as many as 1,000 players
We hope everybody continues to join us and share in the rich history and culture shared at the Seabird Island First Nation Festival for years to come, and we look forward to seeing you all at other events on the circuit this year.