Upstart Lummi paddling group has sights on Ferndale, Tahiti and eventually the Olympics
When the Xw’lemi Outrigger Racing Association (or XORA for short) met for the first time in September 2024, it had six members. By its next practice, that number had doubled.
“Posted (it) to social media, word of mouth. By the next one, kids brought friends, kids brought siblings, we were up to maybe 13 or 14 kids,” Karli Kinley, one of the group’s leaders, told the Herald in a phone call. “Then by the next one, it was 21, and it’s just grown and grown and grown.”
According to Kinley, the idea behind the club was to give Lummi Nation youth a chance to train and compete together, and represent the Lummi and Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest. Using canoes and paddling have been central to the region’s tribes for millennia.
“In our own traditional canoe circuit, we are all different clubs, and XORA just kind of gives a place for all of these kids to be able to come together and paddle together as Indigenous kids,” Kinley said. “Instead of just representing their family canoe club, they are representing Indigenous people as a whole.”
The club now has around 70 members of all ages, more than 30 of whom are set to travel to Tahiti in April for the Talifit Bora Race. The three-day event includes a clinic and series of races in the Polynesian-style of outrigger paddling known as va’a that draws paddlers from around the world.
“They provide a few days of training in Tahitian-Polynesian style paddling, and then they just have a bunch of fun races. It’s very, very youth-driven,” Kinley said. “Their intent is to start with youth, to promote the revitalization and preservation of the sport of paddling.”
XORA Ferndale gala and fundraiser
To help fund the trip, as well as the cost of getting the club up and running, the group hosted a gala on Saturday at the Silver Reef Casino Resort in Ferndale. The event featured comedian Kasey “Rezzalicious” Nicholson, along with a variety of musical acts including the Lummi Nation Blackhawk Singers, a silent auction and more.
Kinley said that she got the idea for the gala at a similar event, hosted by Indigenous-focused wellness group Rooted Resiliency.
“I think it was back in November. I attended the Rooted Resiliency gala here at the Silver Reef Casino, that was led by Vina Brown, and I just was really inspired by it,” Kinley said. “While sitting there through the night, I thought we could do this for our kids and make some pretty decent money for them to buy new canoes and paddles.”
The group hopes that it can establish more of a formal structure after the fundraiser and the Tahiti trip.
“We are applying for our own 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization,” Kinley said. “Once we get our charter and bylaws and everything all settled in, we can really structure everything the way that we want it and get the team all on board.”
Other outrigger canoe races
After the gala and the Tahiti trip, the group will turn its attention to a more local event: an in-state qualifier for the 2026 World Sprint Championships.
“Following Tahiti, we’re going to be doing some outrigger stuff, and then the World Sprints time trial will be held in Vancouver, Washington in October,” Kinley said. “If our kids qualify for that, then they will go to Singapore in August of next year.”
The end goal, according to Kinley, is to have Lummi paddlers at the Olympics someday. The International Va’a Federation helped push to get outrigger canoeing included in the Paralympic Games, and Kinley said that the organization could push for the Olympics next.
“We do traditional paddling and outrigger racing through the International Va’a Federation,” Kinley said. “It’s looking to be an Olympic sport. So the why for the XORA Canoe Club is that, if outrigger racing is going to be an Olympic sport, then we’re potentially training Indigenous Olympians.”