Celestine Aleck

Celestine Aleck, Sahiltiniye descends from Snuneymuxw First Nations. She has been an artist most of her life, which has taught her to learn facts and then mix imagination when writing stories. The beauty that surrounds her inspires her to write.

Court Dheensaw

Deep rattles, roars, and rumblings, light from the corners of time, united to flow on an energy frequency vibrating the souls of being. We are one, we are whole, we radiate with the sun and moon, and expand to the rhythms of Earth’s thumping heart. Dare dreamers, share vivid visions vital to re-wilding the wealth of the natural world. We are open to listen, learn, look deeper to find simplicity, and cultivate our kind.

Art Action Earwig, Minah Lee, Wryly Andherson, Tadafumi Tamura

Minah & Wryly, the founding duo brings their Love teeth, 몸 & 맘 (body & mind/spirit in Korean) to their community participatory piece, Love Tooth Nest. Weaving a mother tongue, a mouthful plant chat, and wisdoms of the land, 몸 & 맘 encourage you to feel your roots in the mouth of Mother Earth. The seed-bomb gifts at the Nest contain papier mâché made of audience members’ unique tooth stories given to the wire-tooth sculpture exhibited during their solo exhibition “Give Birth Love Tooth (2023)” at Nanaimo Art Gallery. Tadafumi co-facilitated the cyanotype session for Pulling Ivy Sewing Seeds and installs the community-artwork composing a blue-print map featuring negative sun-printing images of pulled ivy-vines and native plant-inspired images sewn on them. 

Valerie Mermet

Valerie Mermet originally from France moved to Gabriola in 2001. Valerie has been dancing since she was 5. She has been performing and leading dance events in Europe and North America for thr last 30 years. Her enthusiasm and joie de vivre is infectious. Come catch the bug! She is working as a Montessori teacher at Discover Montessori School in Nanaimo and in her spare time she gardens and spends time in nature.

Craig Taylor

Craig Taylor is the author of four books, including the international bestseller Londoners and New Yorkers, winner of the Brooklyn Public Library Prize for Non-Fiction. His books Return to Akenfield and One Million Tiny Plays About Britain have been adapted for the stage.

Kristjanne Vosper

Nanaimo’s Kristjanne Vosper is a multi-dimensional audiovisual artist whose newest record

KMVP “goes Ribit” is evocative of an amphibious naiad emerging wreathed in pondweed from the mud. She is honoured to be a part of Pulling To Gather and let her words and music float like little spirits through the trees.

Reclaim Collective, Qwiyawult-hw, Mariko Ihara, Seairra Courtemanche

The Reclaim Collective is based in the Qu’wut’sun valley, and is doing its first collaborative dance, showing a history of oppression of Indigenous peoples through the policies of assimilation of the Tumuhw, the land and waters, and the people. Ivy represents the oppression. We make a call to all people to work together for the betterment of the environment and all people.

Jack Flash Jack

Jack Flash Jack (they/them) is a dancer and musician based out of Snuneymuxw (Nanaimo). Their journey with dance began in their local gay club in Winnipeg as a teenager and evolved when they discovered the music festival route in BC. Since then they have become a part of numerous ecstatic dance groups and host and teach contact improv within their community. Gravity and the earth are Jack’s favourite dance partners. They can often be seen rolling around on the floor or dancing with inanimate objects (especially trees).

Shvii Rosen

Shvii Rosen (they/them) is a performing artist living on the unceded and traditional territories of the Snuneymuxw peoples in what is colonially known as Nanaimo, BC. Shvii grew up in Tkaronto in an Ashkenazi Jewish family. Shvii still practices Judaism and has found a lot of belonging in Queer Anti-Zionist Jewish spaces. Shvii danced throughout childhood and studied Ballet and Modern at Earl Haig Secondary School. They completed the Foundation Year Programme at The University of King’s College and received their BA in Creative Writing and Performance from Prescott College in 2019. In Prescott, Shvii was introduced to Physical Theatre and Butoh learning from Jay Ruby, Delisa Myles, and Nathan Montgomery. They have since begun studying Clown and performing drag comedy with The Living Faeries drag trio, as well as dancing in Daina Ashbee’s contemporary choreography. Shvii also works as a gardener and tree pruner and is passionate about land connection and tending.

Chris Bigelow Dance Party DJ

Chris Bigelow is a Nanaimo based house music performer and producer who has been performing in clubs, parties, and festivals across the province since finding his love for electronic music in the 90s. His high energy sets are known to energize the dance floor, bring smiles to the faces of house music lovers, and delicately fuse his love of percussive rhythms with the organic and sensual passions of Latin melodies, the dirty grooves of funk, and the nostalgia of classic dance chords. For those true house heads in the crowd, Chris Bigelow will not disappoint.

Joel Good

Joel Good is a traditional Coast Salish Artist, from the Snuneymuxw First Nation. He has been carving in the Coast Salish style to engage his passion for this rare, traditional art form that is now gaining in popularity. He works in the original Coast Salish style, one that has been revitalized by his Father and Mentor, Master Carver and Historian, Dr. William Good. All of Joel’s designs are derived from the traditional legends taught to him and through extensive research into the original archived style. Another significant source of inspiration is his Mother, Artist and Painter, Sandra Moorhouse-Good, who herself had been trained as a classical painter by her Grandfather, Herbert Moorhouse.

bailey macabre

bailey macabre is a queer, disabled, and neurodivergent agender nêhiyaw ukrainian born on Snuneymuxw territory. Their interdisciplinary practice is varied and depends greatly on whatever their current hyperfixation is. They are an illustrator, writer, comic artist, textile worker, poet, sculptor, painter, and media artist. Much of their work focuses on themes of queer passion, Indigenous joy, intimacy, Indigenous futurism, and healing. With a penchant for bright colours, Indigenous sovereignty, and deviance in many forms, their work is multifaceted and ever changing. They have illustrated the cover of two of Jen Ferguson’s novels published by HarperCollins, a children’s book published by Medicine Wheel Publishing, and their work has been published by The Walrus, The Capilano Review, The Yellowhead Institute, Augur Magazine, carte blanche, and more, as well as exhibited by Nanaimo Art Gallery, The View Gallery, The Polygon, and open space.

Rob Turriff City Artist

Robert Turriff was selected by the City of Nanaimo as one of the 2024 Temporary Public Artists. The artist’s project, “Re-wilders” will involve the creation of a collection of sculptural creatures, the shape and form of which has been developed through community youth workshops. Inspired by themes in science fiction, the creatures will symbolically engage in plant management, demonstrating tasks like invasive plant
removal and native plant cultivation, thereby fostering resilience to climate change and encouraging beneficial environmental habitats. The creatures serve as catalysts meant to inspire the community, illustrating practical steps for future land stewardship. Youth community workshops enhance the project, helping the artist craft the creatures form and mythos, and in doing so, evoking a sense of ecological responsibility. This collaborative effort encourages the
community to actively contribute to the project, inspiring action for a sustainable ecosystem in Nanaimo. “Re-Wilders” will be installed in Colliery Park in late Spring 2024 and on display for public engagement and enjoyment for up to five years.

Kamal Parmar Special Guest Poet

Kamal Parmar is a Nanaimo-based poet and writer who has been passionately engaged with writing from a very early age. She experiments often with Haiku poetry and also with creative non-fiction. Her poems explore a range of topics, from childhood recollections of her home in India, to the beauty of the Canadian prairies, to her personal journey, alongside her mother, through Alzheimer’s. Kamal’s work has been published in the UK, Canada and India. Her books include Still Waters (2020), Letters to a Son and a Daughter (2019), In the Rising Mist (2013), Fleeting Shadows (2010). Kamal has been involved in the life of the cultural community in Nanaimo for many years. She has frequently presented poems at venues across Vancouver Island. Currently, she is a full member of the League of Canadian Poets, and is a Board member of the Federation of BC Writers. 

Beehive Design Collective Traveling Artists
The Beehive Design Collective is a wildly motivated, all-volunteer, activist arts collective dedicated to “cross-pollinating the grassroots” by creating collaborative, anti-copyright images for use as educational and organizing tools. Working as word-to-image translators of complex global stories informed by affected communities, the Beehive has launched graphics campaigns that have had major impacts in social and environmental movements worldwide. Active for a quarter-century, the beed have distributed over a quarter million copies of their prints, and have been invited to present their work, tour, and give lectures at conferences, festivals, galleries, museums, community centres and universities on every continent. Their MesoAmerica Resiste graphic took 23 members of the collective over 9 years to complete, and they’ve recently published a rhyming storybook to complement their large mural artwork entitled “The True Cost of Coal“.