By Erin Durrett Everyone who lives on Vashon, no matter how young or old, has had an amazing experience with birds: a song so sweet it melts your heart, a majestic heron sweeping over the water in the early dawn light, or the screech of an owl hunting in the depths of a windy night….
Island Voices, January 2025
Singing the Survival of All Beings
By Erin Durrett Mother orca, Tahlequah, carries a dead baby, once again, for all to see. She is holding her loss in a way that makes it possible for us to mourn with her, and the deeper vision is to see our own children in that mother’s arms. Could there be a more gracious, dignified,…
Island Voices, July 2024
Friendship Grows with Song and Ceremony
By Erin Durrett Drums in hand, we stand on the edge of the central tidepool at Point Robinson and watch a tiny speck afloat on the East Passage waters just off Redondo Beach. A great blue heron is fishing nearby, and we watch it take a bit of a fish just caught by two otters….
Announcements, June 2024
Vashon Has a Welcome Song!
By Erin Durrett Everyone is invited to take part in the welcome ceremony for the Blue Heron Canoe at this year’s Vashon-Maury Island Low Tide Celebration! Join us on Saturday, June 21st from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at beautiful Point Robinson Park. For all the peoples of the Salish Sea, it is customary that…
Island Voices
Vashon Does the New Zealand Haka!
Okay, so what is haka? Haka is the sacred dance of fire, passion, devotion to the land, the ancestors, the clan, the Earth, and all beings – the great dance of the Māori people. My first glimpse of the haka was a few minutes at the end of the film “Whale Rider.” As I watched…