The Rock The Salish Sea! concert series returns to Mary Winspear Centre with the Lau’Welnew Tribal school students performing this time around. (Kevin Wright/Submitted)

Students from Lau’Welnew Tribal school in Sidney will perform at Mary Winspear Centre Thursday as part of a music series designed to raise environmental awareness.

The students will perform as part of Rock the Salish Sea, a partnership between ARTist Response Team (ART) and BC Used Oil Management Association, a not-for-profit group dedicated to the collection and recycling of lubricating oil, oil filters, oil containers, antifreeze and antifreeze containers in B.C. BCUOMA joins with a core group of sponsors including Tire Stewardship BC, Pacific Salmon Foundation and Medications Returns that supports Rock The Salish Sea school programs and concerts.

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Holly Arntzen and Kevin Wright and The Wilds Band will perform with the students to sing original eco-rock songs about oceans and watersheds, wild pacific salmon, climate change and Indigenous traditional knowledge about treating the natural world. ART said in a release that it hopes that the concert series, now in its fourth edition, will inspire people to take local action to protect the watersheds that feed into the inland ocean, address climate change, and restore wild salmon runs to abundance.

“Our partnership with ART and the ‘Rock the Salish Sea!’ Concert Series is an important initiative for us as we understand the need to educate children on ecosystems, and the need to protect our watersheds,” added David Lawes, BCUOMA’s executive director. “BCUOMA is an environmental stewardship and we take the task of informing all British Columbians about these important initiatives very seriously. ART helps us reach young people in a way that’s entertaining and educating.”

Doors open at 6:30 and the show begins at 7 p.m.

wolfgang.depner@peninsulanewsreview.com