A trio of Sunshine Coast residents were among more than 220 people who took part in the Pulling Together Canoe Journey 2025.
This year’s journey began at Tsawout First Nation on July 6 and concluded in Cowichan Territory on July 13. During this year’s event, 14 canoes visited WSÁNEĆ, Malahat, and Cowichan Territory.
The Pulling Together Canoe Journey aims to strengthen relations, promote healing, and foster reconciliation and respect for Indigenous host nations as participants “pull together” toward a common goal. It also supports the sharing of Indigenous cultures.
Since 2001, Indigenous communities have partnered with police and other provincial and federal agencies, including RCMP, the Vancouver Police Department, the Victoria Police Department, and the Royal Canadian Navy, for the annual journey.
Alfonso Salinas, a member of the Pulling Together Canoe Society’s board of directors, attended his first journey in 2024, which began in Porteau Cove and ended in Vancouver. This year, he was joined by two local youth for the 2025 journey on Vancouver Island.
“I am going to come every year. I am going to try and bring more people,” he said. “The kid that I am with, he is 12; before I even asked him, he said, ‘When are we going to go on a canoe journey?’ So, these are the ones we are trying to inspire, who are hungry for it. And then just keep creating opportunity.”
Salinas of the shíshálh Nation said he’d love to see a day when the journey takes place on the Sunshine Coast. He said canoeing provides a connection to ancestors.
Salinas was one of the producers of the 2023 documentary film s-yéwyáw/AWAKEN. In the film, Salinas, Ecko Aleck of the Nlaka’pamux Nation (Lytton, B.C.,) and Charlene SanJenko of Splatsin of the Secwépemc Nation (Shuswap, B.C.,) are learning and documenting the traditional cultural teachings and legacies of their Elders.
Darryl Gray, president of the Pulling Together Canoe Society, said the journey strives to build badly needed connections between police and Indigenous communities, particularly youth.
“One, it is a form of reconciliation – reconciliAction. You are taking action to create reconciliation. Two, those relationships that they could build here could really ripple into their adulthood,” he said. “I built a lot of relationships here that have really, really rippled past me being a youth and rippled into me being an adult. And it has really helped me with my career and guided me with where my path has led me till this day. A lot of my closest mentors are actually police officers.”
The host nations for this year’s event are the WSÁNEĆ Peoples – Pauquachin, Tsawout, Tseycum and MÁLEXEŁ Nations.
At a July 13 closing circle in Duncan, the Pulling Together Canoe Society announced its 2026 journey will return to the Vancouver area. A planning committee has already begun work on the 25th anniversary of the Pulling Together Canoe Journey.
“It will be pretty amazing next year,” Gray said.
The Pulling Together Canoe Journey was inspired by the 1997 Vision Quest Journey along B.C.’s West Coast, which saw Indigenous Peoples and the RCMP visiting Indigenous communities along the way.
See more at https://pullingtogether.ca/.
