Community Drum-Making Workshop November 2026

IMPORTANT NOTE: limited to 12 participants. Priority registration for Indigenous students and employees.

Facilitators:

David Fierro & Susheela Kundargi, The Healing Place Foundation

Date:

Nov. 3, 1-4pm

Location:

The Gathering Place, KPU Surrey, Maple building

Description:

Everyone attending will have the opportunity to make their own tom-tom, which they can take

home or leave with the group drum as part of the completed set. Throughout the workshop,

David and Susheela will share knowledge about the drum-making process, the materials being

used, and the relationships and practices connected to the work.

The afternoon will include:

• Introduction to the drum-making process and materials

• Preparation and construction of a 24-inch group drum (elk hide on cedar frame)

• Opportunities for participants to assist with the group drum at different stages

• Individual tom-tom making for everyone attending

• Conversation, questions and discussion throughout the process

David Fierro (Xa Xa Smanxwt), co-founder of Tsi-Tesakotitsén:tha – The Healing Place

Foundation, is Okanagan, from Westbank First Nation, and a cultural steward, land-based

educator and master drum maker. For more than 20 years, he has worked with First Nations in

environmental stewardship, land and water management, remediation, cultural protection,

economic development and community planning. His land-based practice includes hunting and

whole-animal use, hide processing, drum making, traditional ecological knowledge and teaching

practical skills through direct participation.

Susheela Kundargi is a co-founder of Tsi-Tesakotitsén:tha – The Healing Place Foundation and a

community food-systems coordinator, educator, writer and systems strategist. Her work brings

together food sovereignty, land-based education, ecological stewardship, traditional skills, arts

and community capacity-building, with a particular focus on creating practical contemporary

systems through which skills and knowledge can be learned, used and passed on.

Together, David and Susheela develop hands-on programming that brings traditional and landbased

skills into contemporary contexts through learning by doing, cultural practice, ecological

stewardship and intergenerational knowledge transmission.

This event is supported/co-hosted by KPU Wild Spaces, The Centre for Educational

Transformation, Academic and Career Preparation, Indigenous Studies, and the Provost’s Office.

This workshop is part of KPU’s Community of Practice for Decolonizing Educational Practices.

Please contact Lee Beavington for more information.