A celebration of Indigenous culture was held at Maffeo Sutton Park in Nanaimo earlier this week.
Organized by the Mid-Island Métis Nation, hundreds of people gathered in downtown Nanaimo for National Indigenous People’s Day on Tuesday, June 21.
During the presentations, Edie Cartwright, the women’s representative for Mid-Island Métis Nation, spoke on behalf of Nanaimo-Ladysmith MP Lisa Marie Barron as a constituency assistant.
“[Indigenous Peoples Day] is a time to celebrate the diverse heritage, languages, cultural practises, stories and spiritual beliefs of Indigenous Peoples across the country,” said Cartwright. “It’s time to acknowledge the history and contributions of Indigenous Peoples past, present and future. It’s also well past time to commit to truth and justice.”
Nanaimo’s MLA Sheila Malcolmson also stood at the Lions Pavilion during presentations.
“In a time of a lot of challenge, a lot of isolation, and some really hard stories and some hard history to reconcile with, I’m really grateful for a sunny day when we can be together and celebrate the original peoples and show gratitude,” she said.
Families watched and listened to a variety of Indigenous performers including the Mid-Island Métis Nation Fiddle Group, Snuneymuxw’s Footprints of the Wolf, Summer Sage and Ed Peekeekoot.
A group of children were even able to practise and participate in traditional Red River jigging together wearing ribbon shirts and dresses.
Indigenous games were available for children of all ages to play, and the Métis Nation brought back its 26-foot teepee to explore.
Laura Langstaff of Summer Sage, a duo from Saskatchewan-born Métis comprised of Langstaff and her sister Melissa Hall, played their song Shiny Ribbon.
“In my culture, ribbons play a very important role. Ribbons identify our families, our clans. Ribbons carry our prayers. Our elders tie our prayers to trees and when were on our traditional territory, we can see sometimes the trees full of ribbons that are carrying our prayers,” she said before the song.
Aimee Chalifoux, Indigenous literacy coordinator at Literacy Central Vancouver Island, was also publicly honoured at the Indigenous Peoples Day celebration for being the recipient of the Breaking Barriers Award during the B.C. Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Awards, which she won in March.
READ MORE: Nanaimo literacy worker wins B.C. Multiculturalism and Anti-Racism Award
mandy.moraes@nanaimobulletin.com
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