Setting Sun Circle

Check out our 2025 Impact Report! Learn more about Setting Sun Circle's work and how we 🎨 CREATE. 🎥 SHARE. 📖 EDUCATE.⁠
⁠
👉🏼 https://bit.ly/SettingSun2025Impact
⁠
Become an insider and be the first to know about the big things coming!⁠

📰 Sign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/SettingSunNewsletter
⁠

A bold new chapter begins ✨

In a powerful essay for the inaugural issue of Cascadia Daily Life, Executive Director Darrell Hillaire shares the vision behind Setting Sun Circle — our future home for Coast Salish storytelling, art, gatherings and Indigenous innovation in downtown Bellingham.

“A cultural resurgence is underway here and rippling outward.”

Opening in 2027, the space will uplift Native voices through immersive media, public art, food, film and community connection — creating a place where culture, story and healing come together.

📰 Read the full essay: https://www.cascadiadaily.com/2026/may/06/essay-2027-brings-bold-new-chapter-for-indigenous-storytelling

Today is National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Relatives. Our prayers go out to all missing and murdered Indigenous people, their families and friends. We love and miss you.

🎼 Song composed by Antone George of West Shore Canoe Family

https://youtu.be/4KMYi-2BMsI?si=JWfZX-_X2Tof1rkb

Setting Sun Circle 4.8K likes, 218 comments. "The Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women"

Behind every place name is a story, a language and a living culture. What does it really mean to honor Indigenous language and place? Setting Sun Circle's daniseten Michael Vendiola shares his perspective in a recent article from Klipsun Magazine.

“That is at the forefront of what we’re attempting,” daniseten said about Setting Sun Circle, our future home in downtown Bellingham. “We’re trying to become a hub here within Coast Salish territory to bring Coast Salish ways of knowing to the community.”

Read more: https://www.klipsunmagazine.com/spring-2026-language/speak-in-translation-listen-with-intention-act-with-care

📰 Klipsun Magazine
🖋️ Brenna Witchey

☀️ Learn more about our future home, Setting Sun Circle: https://settingsuncircle.org/setting-sun-circle

Speak in translation, listen with intention, act with care — Klipsun Magazine Speak in translation, listen with intention, act with care Apr 7 Written By Klipsun Magazine Naming and acknowledging the land we’re on isn’t enoughStory by Brenna WitcheyPublished April 7, 2026 Photo of Kweq’ Smánit taken from Kulshan Ridge by Elias Breidford in 1959. // Photo courtesy of Wh...

Whatcom Families — Setting Sun Circle is participating in the First Fridays Children's Art Walk presented by Allied Arts Of Whatcom County! Join us 5-8 pm on May 1 at Setting Sun Circle (210 W. Holly St. in Bellingham) for coloring pages by Indigenous artists and to see our Coast Salish Living Mural!

After a decade of sharing Indigenous values through film, podcasts, gatherings and research, Children of the Setting Sun Productions is embarking on a bold new journey. We are delighted to share with you that we will be opening a new home for Indigenous stories and innovation in downtown Bellingham.

This is a continuation of our mission to amplify Native voices and inspire collective action to protect Mother Earth. Our future home will give us the opportunity to build stronger relationships rooted in community, gatherings and bold ideas for building a better future.

Our organization and this new space will carry our mission forward under the name Setting Sun Circle. This name embraces the work you will see and experience, and what you can look forward to when Setting Sun Circle opens in 2027. Most of all, Setting Sun Circle represents an open invitation to all people to learn from Indigenous values and lifeways.

Our Education Team traveled to Snoqualmie for the Washington State Indian Education Association (WSIEA) Conference where we were honored to open the gathering with a keynote and presentation. We shared our films and classroom work, led youth workshops, hosted an evening screening and Q&A, attended sessions and participated in WSIEA Board governance.

Hy'shqe WSIEA for having us!

📣 ICYMI: In last month's newsletter, we shared how our current work for the Setting Sun Circle is focused on finalizing plans for key community spaces including the kitchen, galleries, maker spaces and the building façade. In April, we'll begin major structural work, opening the building to create the future Immersive LED Immersive Experience and central gathering space. This work will shape Setting Sun Circle into a lasting community and cultural hub.

We installed a test screen allowing our team to better understand the large-format immersive experience. When the full LED theater is installed, visitors can engage with Indigenous stories in a powerful, shared environment that brings narrative, art and media together in ways not possible through traditional screens.

Hy'shqe to Allen Family Philanthropies for funding the Immersive Experience screen and programming!

📰 Did you miss the March newsletter? There's still time to sign up for our next one to be the first to get Setting Sun Circle updates!

https://settingsunproductions.org/newsletter-sign-up

Hy'shqe Muckleshoot Tribal College and King County Library System for inviting our team to the Muckleshoot Library for community and conversation!

Executive Director Darrell Hillaire and Environmental Stewardship Specialist Free Borsey joined Muckleshoot environmental leaders to share perspectives on land stewardship, cultural knowledge and climate resilience. In a panel moderated by Dr. Denise Bill, they shared their lived experiences on Coast Salish lands and how they advocate for environmental justice in their work.

This event was part of King County Library System’s Climate Action Plan engagement efforts. 📚️🐟️🌎️

Writer and Producer Noelani Auguston recently visited a class of 15 MIT and Harvard students to watch our latest film “The River Remembers” and discuss the impact dams have on salmon and Indigenous communities. The class – called "From Lab to Land: Building Infrastructures of Climate Justice in the Pacific Northwest” – focuses on teaching engineers to think more broadly about some of the devastating effects infrastructure has had on the environment and people in the Pacific Northwest, addressing how we can build better worlds.

We’re bringing science and spirit together! Learn more about "The River Remembers" at https://settingsunproductions.org/theriverremembers 🐟🐟🐟

Thank you to our friends at the Food Co-op for having us at the annual member meeting where CSSP Executive Director Darrell Hillaire discussed our shared values and the power of community!

Throughout April, the Co-op's Community Change Fund donations at the register will go toward supporting the work of the Lhaq’temish Foundation to build a more prosperous community through cultural education and food sovereignty programs. Contributions will fund the Lummi Commodity Foods Program's delivery of garden boxes, soil and plant starts as well as cooking and food preservation classes.

Darrell Hillaire on Shared Values and the Power of Community — 2026 Annual Member Meeting Darrell Hillaire of the Lummi Nation and Children of the Setting Sun Productions joins the 2026 Annual Member Meeting as a guest speaker.Through the story of...