LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON - Almost a month after its official expansion the changes to the Nahanni National Park Reserve were celebrated in the Deh Cho.

Dehcho First Nations and Parks Canada co-hosted a community celebration in Fort Simpson on July 16 to recognize the six-fold increase in the park's size. When the bill to expand the park received royal assent on June 18 the park expanded to 30,000 square kilometres from approximately 4,766 square kilometres.

Jim Prentice, the federal minister for Environment and Parks Canada, addresses the audience at the Fort Simpson arbour during the community celebration of the Nahanni National Park Reserve expansion. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo

Residents of Fort Simpson and other Deh Cho communities as well as officials from all levels of government, including many chiefs and Metis presidents from the region, attended the celebration. The federal government was represented by Chuck Strahl, the minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, and Jim Prentice, the minister of Canada's Environment and Parks Canada.

"It's really an extraordinary day," Prentice told the crowd gathered in Fort Simpson's arbour.

"We're celebrating something that is truly momentous."

The expansion of the park is the Deh Cho's gift to Canada and Canada's gift to humanity, he said.

Prentice thanked all of the groups that made the expansion possible including Dehcho First Nations, Parks Canada, the Naha Dehe Consensus Team and the Nahanni Expansion Working Group. The residents of Nahanni Butte and the larger Deh Cho were also thanked.

"It's the Deh Cho who've stood in defense of the Nahanni since time immemorial," said Prentice.

Following the celebration Prentice, accompanied by his daughter, set off to see the park first hand during a four-day trip down the Nahanni.

For Minister Chuck Strahl the expansion is a sign of what can be accomplished when Canada establishes respectful relationships with First Nations.

During his speech Strahl pledged to extend the working relationship with Dehcho First Nations that made the park expansion possible to the rest of the negotiations between the two parties.

"Let's get it done," said Strahl referring to the Deh Cho Process.

An agreement between Canada and the Deh Cho needs to be done right but it also needs to be done in reasonable time, Strahl said.

The ministers' comments were at the end of a list of speeches made by special guests at the celebration. Each guest spoke positively about the expansion.

"I'm very thankful about the park expanding in my home area," said Nahanni Butte elder Elsie Marcellais through a translator.

Marcellais said she'd been concerned about the water in the area and is still concerned about the two mines near the park and possible contaminants from them. Marcellais thanked everyone who was involved in the expansion.

"The Creator has given us a beautiful land," she said.

In addition to the speeches, the celebration included a fire feeding ceremony, a drum prayer song and a community luncheon. In the evening 18 drummers drew a crowd to the arbour for a drum dance.