Fifth annual Gathering of the Eagles

By Matt Wickey

This six-island, weeklong canoe journey celebrates our intergenerational cultural heritage with Indigenous relatives visiting from around the world. Lopez, San Juan and Orcas events occur May 17 and 18 on Lopez Island, May 19 and 20 on San Juan, and May 21 and 22 on Orcas Island

This intertribal canoe encampment is a drug- and alcohol-free event and coordinates potlatch potluck-style gatherings each night on respective islands with the Friends of the San Juans and Island hosts to provide a safe, peaceful, educational environment for our communities to celebrate our intergenerational cultural heritage.

“We are all about bridge-building between communities, educating our neighbors and sharing and caring in the ‘Spirit of the Potlatch’ that has now returned,” Sul ka dub said. (Freddie Lane, co-founder, Lummi Nation.)

“This is my annual pilgrimage, this is my Mecca,” Navajo Elder Esther Yazzie-Lewis said. “Our gathering celebrates intergenerational cultural heritage of all peoples, not just us Indigenous. We come here on a grassroots journey sharing the old ways of the potlatch gathering that was once banned by the governments of Canada and the United States. But look at how resilient our Indigenous people are – we see all these customs and traditions returning to their rightful place … amongst the people. That’s resilience.”

This year’s journey concludes with a special voyage “home” of the Maui canoe family (Hawaiian Outrigger Canoe Voyaging Society). A team of seven including two local San Juan islanders Matthew Wickey (Salish Sea Voyaging Society) and Jas Ikeda (Orcas/Kauai) and members of their HOCVS family will sail from Lummi Nation to Kihei, Hawaii, on a donated Mayflower class Ketch to gift to the Children of Maui. Aboard the vessel Cutty Sark will be sailing Grandmaster Pwo Navigator Sesario Sewralur from Micronesia and Aunofo Havea, Tonga Voyaging Society and the first female sea captain in the Kingdom of Tonga. This Kia’i Moana voyage will be blessed with such an abundance of wisdom and knowledge of traditionally navigating ancestral oceanic highways.

The presence of this vessel on Maui will open opportunities for Matt Wickey (SSVS) to take local San Juan Islands youth on exchanges to Maui for maritime and cultural immersion experiences.

Local resident Wickey voyages for many reasons, but a huge one is for his community of San Juan Island that rallied around his family in love, support and prayers while fighting a life-threatening infection.

“Fear impedes our ability to listen more deeply. My sacred wounds from watching/feeling my kids and wife almost lose me are real, yet I retain my strong kuleana to paddle forward as a father and husband to honor those that brought me back to life with prayer. The profundity of the magic that is woven into our lands and waters is real. We must teach our children how to listen to this knowledge. To trust in and develop their Na’au, a strong spirit, a deep interconnection to all life. Voyaging forces us to transmute those fears into wisdom and understanding. We bring those gifts back to our communities, inspiring future generations,” Wickey said.