Kevin Allerston
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (June 17/05) - Music and the aroma of barbecue filled the Yellowknife River campgrounds last weekend as 48 high school students were honoured in a ceremony for Aboriginal graduates.

The afternoon was spent throat singing, fiddling, jigging, and storytelling, and capped with a feast of traditional foods featuring caribou and bannock. About 200 spectators took in the celebration.

Nicholas Landry of St. Patrick High School was one of the Dene graduates being honoured. He was happy and surprised to see how many people came out.

"This is great. This is a really good way to get everybody together," he said.

"I thought a lot of people wouldn't show up," Landry said.

"It's awesome to recognize all the aboriginals because there's not a lot of them who graduate, so it's good to recognize all of them," said Sheena Sangris, who graduated from St. Pat's this year.

The audience sat captivated as Leela Gilday sang and played acoustic guitar. Later, Goota Ashoona and Seporah Ungalaq performed throat singing.

Roberta Kennedy helped to organize the celebration. She said it was important for her to see the graduates honoured in a traditional way. When she was young, she didn't feel like she could be proud of her culture, and wanted to change that for others.

"We wanted to recognize the cultural backgrounds of these students," Kennedy said. "I'm hoping it will represent that this is a big deal, that they stayed in school and got all their credits so they could get their diploma."