Cassandra Smith
Individual
Roles
Artist, Dancer, EducatorBiography
Cassandra Smith was born on November 5,1990. She is Coast Salish and kwakwakaswakw, from Tsleil-Waututh Nation, Gilford Island, Kingcome Inlet, Alert Bay. She has a daughter named Arianna Green. Her father is Peter Smith from Gilford Island, Kingcome Inlet, Alert bay (Chief Tlil mogi lakw). Her mother is Elsie Guss from Tsleil-Waututh Nation. Her grandparents (now deceased) are Charles Smith from Gilford island, Beatrice Smith (Cook) from Alert bay, Ernest Guss from Tsleil-Waututh Nation, and Elsie Guss (Batt) from Rosedale Cheam band. Smith started dancing and learning protocols in the potlatch when she was two- or three-years-old for both her kwakwaka^wakw and her Coast Salish side. She is a member of the dance group Children of Takaya, which was started by Chief Dan George in the 1950s. Recently, she has been learning one of her mother tongue languages hdhqdmihdm in community classes. In February 2015, she started helping revive the language by learning and teaching classes at the same time. Smith also participates in traditional war canoe racing, and has been pulling for years with the Burrard Canoe Club. Her goal as young person is to inspire and mentor future generations to get involved in culture and language, to bring back what's important to First Nations people, and to bring back the teachings of her ancestors. She believes language and culture are important because they're a part of who we are, and that it's important to know who you are and where you come from. Her goal is to become fluent in both hdriqdrhiridrh and kwakwala.Adapted from #callresponse press release, 2016
Collection
grunt gallery Programming Archive (Artist)Related program
#callresponse (Artist)Related Archive, Library & Publication Objects
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