Music is the heart and soul of Hul’q’umi’num’ cultural traditions. It anchors our spiritual work, and adds enjoyment to our life. Music is also an excellent way to inspire language learners to fluency and to strengthen the use of the language throughout the community.
Hwulmuhwqun Hwst’ilum
Hwulmuhwqun Hwst’ilum is a choir collective learning and performing old and new songs in Hul’q’umi’mum’. We are the choir for the Hul’q’umi’num’ Language & Culture Society, an Indigenous non-for-profit organization whose sole goal is helping our language and culture thrive. The work the choir does creating songs supports the work of the language instructors and learners and also the music needs of other FPCC funding projects, for example the Language Nest. Live performances of our choir have had audiences of 50-250 community members. We hope that our recordings will reach many more.
Funding supports our compositions, rehearsals, recording sessions, and music workshops. This past year, our choir has been very active, meeting regularly to practice, study Coast Salish music traditions, and carrying out workshops where we collectively composed new songs in Hul’q’umi’num’ and readied them for the stage. Many of our members also performed in September at the Indigenous Theatre Festival in Victoria.
During the year our Hwulmuhwqun Hwst’ilum choir collective meets regularly to learn and perform old and new songs. By meeting regularly over the summer, fall, and winter months, we have been able to build a substantial repertoire of songs in Hul’q’umi’num’.
We believe that bringing secular music to our communities as well as to the general public will increase awareness of Coast Salish music and hopefully inspire many of the younger generation to raise their voices. As a choir, our goal is to learn songs known to our community and families and also to create new songs in the traditional style and sing them in the Hul’q’umi’num’ language.
Our collection of songs and musical work
Collection of Language Nesters Songs
(Audio + Text)
2026 Music Report
Jingle Bells
By Sophia Good
O come all ye faithful
By Sophia Good
Silent night
By Sophia Good