Riverbank hosts Indigenous Peoples Day

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This article was published 22/06/2024 (650 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike flocked to the Riverbank Discovery Centre yesterday to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day. Festivities began at 10 a.m. with a pipe ceremony and continued throughout the day.

Brandon’s annual celebration has been growing over the years. Raven Willoughby, a member of the Indigenous Peoples Day planning committee, is happy it has gotten to this point.

“Brandon has really deep roots of Indigenous peoples doing things, but not all of it has been on this large of a showcase,” she said.

“There have been powwows, there have been dancers, there have been people doing different ceremonies, but they haven’t been on the stage and showcased as big as they are here today. So I think that’s an important component.”

This year’s celebrations had a few new additions, at least to the centralized celebration. The talent show has been put on before by the Men’s Resource Centre in Princess Park, but the planning committee and the centre joined forces to bring it to the Riverbank’s lineup of events.

Talent show participant Alexis Cinq-Mars sang a few songs for the audience gathered.

“It feels good to make other people feel good with music … It feels good to be seen and to be heard,” she said.

After the pipe ceremony where prayers were said, asking the Creator to bless the day’s events, the grand entry began. Frank Tacan led the way, carrying the Brandon Friendship Centre’s eagle staff. The staff is the Indigenous equivalent of a national flag, Bill Taylor explained as it was brought out.

Dignitaries from different local groups were introduced, like Interim Police Chief Randy Lewis and Ward 2 city councillor Kris Desjarlais, representing the Brandon Urban Aboriginal Peoples Council.

Every hour on the hour, a school bus shuttled people to the Riverbank and back into the city. For those who couldn’t catch the first powwow demo at 12:45 p.m., another was held at 4:30 p.m.

Once the initial entry with all dancers was done, each category did a few dances. Longtime grass dancer Sam Jackson of Sioux Valley Dakota Nation was one of the first to perform.

“When you live this way of life, you choose what we like to call the red road. And when dancing is part of that, dancing is healing … When we’re out there with the drum dancing, what we’re doing is we’re giving good medicine,” he said.

Jackson has been grass dancing since he was 10 years old, and now teaches young people. And the young people were out in force. A toddler in a jingle dress performed, stomping her feet in tune with the woman whose hand she held. The primary drummer who played for the dancers was eight years old. The emcee told the audience he has been drumming since he was three.

As each dance category began, the significance of the performers’ dress and dance were explained to those watching. Fancy shawl dancers moved their arms in and out, holding on to a shawl around their shoulders, mimicking the movement of butterfly flight.

Beyond the stage, Indigenous crafters sold their work. Beading, ribbon skirts and leather goods lined the tables. To top it off, there was a bannock station where the traditional food was being freshly fried.

Willoughby hopes that the success of this annual celebration continues and grows in the years to come.

“Brandon’s really lucky to have a really good base of Indigenous knowledge keepers … but now it’s just bringing more awareness to it,” she said.

» cmcconkey@brandonsun.com