Activities, celebrations planned across Canada for National Indigenous Peoples Day
Country food, free swims, hockey games and concerts all on the docket for Saturday
Elders help themselves to country food at the Elders Qammaq in Iqaluit on National Indigenous Peoples Day in 2024. This year, an elders bingo is planned at 1 p.m. on Saturday at the Qammaq. (File photo by Jeff Pelletier)
Communities across the country are set to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day on Saturday.
Iqaluit is packed with events, beginning with a pool party from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the Aquatic Centre.
Next is the annual Jimmy Kilabuk Fun Run/Walk at Sylvia Grinnell Park. The race begins at 10 a.m. at the Arctic Winter Games arena and continues until noon. Participants are encouraged to choose a distance of three kilometres, five kilometres or the one-mile children’s track.
Swimmers, runners and race spectators can refuel themselves later at a community feast being held at the town square from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
An elders bingo runs from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. at the Elders Qammaq, and kids can have some free playtime on the open field at the Arctic Winter Games arena from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
A square dance is scheduled to take place at Nakasuk High School from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., followed by another free swim at the Aquatic Centre until 5:30 p.m.
The majority of RCMP detachments across Nunavut will team up with other partners in hosting barbecues in their communities, said Sgt. George Henrie, spokesperson for Nunavut RCMP. Iqaluit’s RCMP barbecue is cancelled due to the city’s weather forecast, though, which calls for a high of 4 C with rain.
In Pond Inlet, residents can gather at the community centre at 2 p.m. for games and square dancing, said Dylan Mablick, the hamlet’s economic development officer.
Iqaluit artist Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory takes on the five-kilometre route for the 2024 Jimmy Kilabuk Run in Iqaluit. Saturday’s event begins at the Arctic Winter Games arena at 10 a.m. (File photo by Jeff Pelletier)
In Ottawa, a hockey team from Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami will face off against the Assembly of First Nations at 1 p.m. for a chance to take home the coveted Tea and Bannock Cup. Light refreshments will be served at this free, all-ages event.
Skaters will have a chance to step on the ice before the game, which will take place at the University of Ottawa’s Minto Sports Complex.
Meanwhile, Isaruit Inuit Arts will hold an event at Ottawa’s Annie Pootoogook Park on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Entertainment will include cultural performances, country food, stone sculpting and seal-skinning demonstrations.
“We expect 500 to 600 people at our annual event,” said Sheena Akoomalik, a spokesperson for Isaruit Inuit Arts, in an email.
Works by more than 20 Inuit artists will be on display.
In Montreal, the Southern Quebec Inuit Association, Tasiutigiit Association and Saturviit Inuit Women’s Association of Nunavik are teaming up to host a day in the park at Parc Arthur-Therrien in Verdun, Que., from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Activities include water games and a wading pool, in addition to a music concert.
At the Winnipeg Art Gallery, people can attend a rooftop hip hop concert featuring Ontario rappers Shad and 2oolman, and from Manitoba, sound artist Bret Parenteau and South Sudanese-Canadian vocalist and saxophonist INGIA, among other artists. The concert runs from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. is not planning events for Saturday, spokesperson Mosha Folger said in an email to Nunatsiaq News.
“Our team has been focused on events across the territory for July 9, Nunavut Day,” he said.
You really are infatuated with Laakkuluk aren’t you Nunatsiaq?
Are you running in the race? You should!
NTI NOT PLANNING?
Nti doesnt want to spend any of the millions of dollars that is sitting. Wait til it’s last minute, when the feds wants back what’s left and that’s when nti will “spend what they can” and pocket what’s left
Greed is in NTI. Iffeds take it allback…wouldnt make a differance now would it ? Nobody sees the money just a thing thats there for talk .
Tally to check media vs reality…
Seemed like zip, zero zilch of anything in Igloolik
To understand the differences between Indiginous and others, it helps to know a bit of history.
Perhaps that’s why history is not really taught in Nunavut.
The United States was started by 13 men, each of whom claimed that he, rather than the King of England, had a direct line to God. They each left England with people who were willing to do whatever their leader told them to do. Those settlers came “to live free from royal oppression”. But they had no concerns about killing the Indiginous people whose land they wanted.
Canada was started by French and then British aristocrats who were not oldest-sons, and hence stood to inherit nothing from their fathers. The came to North America to get valuables, such as fish, furs, timber, and minerals. They each had a plan to take their plunder back to where they came from. Their intend was to buy the land-holding of some impoverished oldest-son. A few succeeded.
After the American Revolutionary War, about 1/3 of the colonists decided that “royal oppression” and a chance to go to England with considerable wealth was better than the alternative. Most of those moved to what is now Ontario.
This has led to what we have today. The USA is becoming a religious empire. Canada is being looted of its raw materials, which are being sent elsewhere for value-added processing. Canada continues to import people willing to work hard in hope of a small share of the loot.
Neither Canada nor the USA intends to give back the land, nor its wealth, to the Indiginous people who had possession before the arrival of the Europeans.