Traditional Welcome | Opening the 2024 North Shore Writers Festival

Join professional Indigenous storyteller, educator, and author, Join Kung Jaadee (Roberta Kennedy), for a traidtional welcome and opening of the North Shore Writers Festival.

FREE! Registration is required to secure your spot. Drop-in seating may be available but is not guaranteed.

Interested in attending more than one Festival event? You must register for each event separately to guarantee your spot at each event.

For more information on this and other festival events: www.northshorewritersfestival.com

The North Shore Writers Festival is presented in partnership by North Vancouver City Library, North Vancouver District Public Library, and West Vancouver Memorial Library.

The Festival would not be made possible without support from the Friends of the Library groups from all three North Shore Libraries, North Shore Writers’ Association, KidsBooks, and the North Shore News.

The Festival takes place on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) , and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. The Coast Salish Peoples have long used oral storytelling to pass on and preserve their cultural teachings. This powerful tradition highlights the important role that stories play in our lives. We are grateful to host the North Shore Writers Festival on the lands of these Nations and honour the art of storytelling.

Kung Jaadee (Roberta Kennedy) is a professional Indigenous storyteller, educator (BA and BEd) and published author who has been telling stories for 30-plus years across Canada. She belongs to the X̱aayda (Haida), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Tlingit, Tsleil-Waututh Nations, and is also part Hawaiian. She was born and raised on Haida Gwaii and is from the Yaguu’laanaas Raven Clan.

Her Haida name, Kung Jaadee, means ‘Moon Woman’ and was presented to her at her great uncle’s memorial feast by her cousin Crystal Robinson. Her Aunt Leialoha gave her the name “Hi’ilawe,” in reference to the most famous Hawaiian waterfall on the Big Island.

Over the past three decades, Kung Jaadee has performed traditional Haida legends, while also sharing vivid personal stories about her clan's survival of the smallpox epidemic, and the history and culture of her people. She has performed at hundreds of festivals, schools and Aboriginal celebrations across Canada. She is also the author of the popular children's books, Raven's Feast and Gifts from Raven (selected as a Local BC Book to Read), as well as the textbooks, Haida Nation: Indigenous Communities in Canada and We Are Home. Her stories have also been published in several anthologies, magazines and online publications. In recent years, Kung Jaadee also worked as the Vancouver Public Library's Indigenous Storyteller in Residence.

Since relocating to the Lower Mainland, Kung Jaadee has learned Squamish legends from her uncle Bob Baker (S7aplek, Hawaiian name is Lanakila).

Kung Jaadee claims “storytelling chose her” and loves to share her gift of storytelling with people of all ages across Turtle Island.

Host or Publisher North Shore Writers Festival