Public celebration of indigenous culture cherished

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This article was published 22/06/2017 (3053 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This year’s 150th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation doesn’t mean much to Martha Palmer.

At least not to the same degree as Wednesday’s National Aboriginal Day celebration.

When going to school in the northern community of Iqaluit, now the capital of Nunavut, she was told that the nation’s indigenous people immigrated to North America across the Bering Sea to Canada — an assertion that Gov. Gen. David Johnston recently got into hot water for sharing last weekend.

“I was very confused by that so when I got home I asked my dad and he said, ‘Don’t listen to that. We’ve always been here,’” Palmer said.

Palmer was one of a handful of elders to offer opening prayers during Brandon’s National Aboriginal Day celebrations at the École New Era School grounds yesterday.

Her prayer, representing Inuit peoples, was shared in her native language of Inuktitut.

“For so long our language was suppressed,” she explained after her prayer. “We were told not to speak it, so I honoured our language today.”

“It’s about time” that indigenous people celebrate their culture publicly, she said, adding that one’s culture must also be celebrated in smaller capacities every day, “whether it be in our language, our food or the way we dress.”

Palmer’s take on the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation was not unanimous among those celebrating National Aboriginal Day in Brandon yesterday, with All Nation Riders member Leo Amyotte citing it as a moment in history worth commemorating alongside the much longer indigenous history.

“It’s quite an honour being here doing this,” he said on his small group’s arrival at the festival site by horseback following a parade from Brandon University.

While Amyotte is from Rolling River First Nation, the balance of the All Nation Riders were from Birdtail Sioux First Nation.

They helped kick off the event in a fashion befitting of indigenous cultural beliefs, with a drum ceremony at Brandon University where they circled the drummers four times, representing the four directions and four races of people.

Sioux Valley Dakota Nation elder Frank Tacan Sr. offered the riders a smudge on their arrival at the École New Era School grounds, which filled out with cultural performances shortly thereafter.

Among those performing was Sam Jackson, a 19-year-old powwow dancer from Sioux Valley Dakota Nation.

The regalia he performed in was handmade and predominantly featured red, yellow and blue.

Of these colours, he said that red carries the greatest importance to him, representing strength, endurance and perseverance.

“I’ve been through a lot in the past four years, but dancing has always given me strength,” he said before taking part in a traditional grass dance.

“It really means a lot, and my family’s really proud of me.”

Those who missed yesterday’s National Aboriginal Day festivities will have another chance to take in indigenous culture at the Riverbank Discovery Centre on July 1, when similar displays will join others in representing the various other cultures that make up the community for Canada Day festivities.

» tclarke@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB