June 18 marked National Indigenous Peoples Day in Olds and the celebration hosted over 1,000 students and other guests.
Olds Institute executive director Mitch Thompson said he was pleased with the turnout.
“We feel really good about the attendance. We were honoured to have several Indigenous elders and knowledge keepers share stories and wisdom,” Thompson said. “We were able to create some unique experiences for the youth and community.”
The event was held in the Big Rack Cow Palace Event Centre to avoid the rain early that morning, athough there were still outdoor activities for participants to enjoy.
There was a teepee set up outside the event centre and inside as well. In the outdoor teepee, youth had the opportunity to learn how to drum on a powwow drum from Cree Elder John Sinclair.
“I had four sticks for them to drum and I had one and I was the lead and we just sang kid songs,” Sinclair said.
The drumming was one of the more popular activities enjoyed by participants, according to Thompson.
“Not only was there the experience of learning about the history, talking about truth and reconciliation but experiencing the learnings of spirituality.
“The children got to identify with their spirit animal and learn about the design on teepees.
“So it was really, really quite a rich day when you consider all the different facets,” Thompson said.
Sinclair said it’s important for Olds to have celebrations of Indigenous culture for reconciliation but also thinks its importance goes beyond just that.
“It’s also a matter of letting people know that we have a beautiful way of life, we have a beautiful culture,” said Sinclair. “It’s not like this is just for us, it’s what we do yes, but it’s open to non-Indigenous people as well.”
One of the messages Sinclair said he hoped to instill in the youth who attended the celebration was one of equality.
“The Creator made life for us, he put the air, he put a sun, he put the earth, water, plants and animals, everything that gives us life, he put it all there.
“Then finally he created us because we needed all of that to live and when we were made we were all made with two legs, two arms, two eyes, two ears, right?
“That means we’re all the same,” Elder Sinclair explained.
Celebrations like National Indigenous Peoples Day are a way of combating the stereotypes in the eyes of the youth, Sinclair said.
“You’re planting seeds in the minds of the children and they’re going to grow up saying, ‘I know (Indigenous people are) not like that’ when you see a bum laying on the street,” Sinclair said. “’They’re not like that, I sat at the drum with Elder Sinclair, and we were singing and we were having fun.' That’s what they’re going to remember.”
