The popular Champinefu Lecture Series is returning this fall for its seventh year. Champinefu is the Kalapuya name of the lower Marys River valley in what is now known as Philomath and Corvallis in Benton County. This year the series will include two webinars and one in-person program. Content for the series is planned and presented in partnership with the Grand Ronde Cultural Resources Department. Event logistics are organized by the Marys Peak Group, Sierra Club. The webinars are hosted by the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library. Additional co-sponsors include the Spring Creek Project, Corvallis Sustainability Coalition and OSU School of Language, Culture & Society. The three-part series is free and open to the public.

Willamette River: Ancestral Highway
Thursday, October 12th @ 7 pm – Webinar
Join the kickoff event for this year’s Champinefu Lecture Series by tuning into a virtual release event of a video about Canoe Culture at Grand Ronde and the Tribe’s relationship to the Willamette River. A panel discussion will follow with Canoe skippers Bobby Mercier and Brian Krehbiel as well as members of the Grand Ronde Canoe Family in conversation with David Harrelson, Grand Ronde Cultural Resources Department Manager.
Webinar Registration: https://bit.ly/2023champinefuseries1

Fire is Life: Living in Relation with Indigenous Fire Practices of Western Oregon
Thursday, November 9th @ 7 pm – Webinar
Joe Scott (Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians), winner of the 2023 Indigenous Place Keeping Artist (IPKA) Fellowship, will give a virtual presentation about his work as a Fellow over the last year connecting indigenous people of this place to the sacred resources that have sustained them through the seasonal round since Time Immemorial. Come learn about his work to restore the “high art” of tended landscapes here in Western Oregon through fire.
Webinar Registration: https://bit.ly/2023champinefuseries2

Winter Storytelling: Indigenous Stories of Place
Tuesday, December 12th, 7 pm
In Person at the OSU Alumni Center, 725 SW 26th Street
No registration required or requested
Join members of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and their invited guests in person for an evening of storytelling in many forms through a handful of voices. Stories shared will focus on place and life in Western Oregon. They will include family stories, Ikanum (creation stories), contemporary stories, and readings.