Crowds swell for Aboriginal Day celebrations
Thousands come out to enjoy fish fry, jigging and fiddles
Joseph Tunney
Northern News Services
Thursday, June 23, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Thousands of people gathered under a beaming sun to take in different Aboriginal Day events across Yellowknife Tuesday.
Two-year-old Ariel Nepomuceno said he likes his balloon. He was out enjoying the day at Somba K'e Civic Plaza. - Joseph Tunney/NNSL photo
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At Somba K'e Civic Plaza, Joanne Taylor, co-ordinator for the events held by the North Slave Métis Alliance, said she believed approximately 7,000 people came out to the annual event, which included live entertainment, Metis fiddles, jigging, a fish fry, Inuit throatsinging and Dene drummers.
"When we started out . they were in the hundreds," Taylor said. "Now we're in the thousands."
The Northwest Territories is the only region in Canada to recognize Aboriginal Day as a statutory holiday and has since 2001.
Live music, dancing, booths selling traditional jewelry, long lineups for food and hoards of people socializing and relaxing on the grass were common sights at the event. Visitors could see balloons float off into the sky as it seemed every child there had one.
"I like my balloon," said two-year-old Ariel Nepomuceno, who had his balloon tied tightly around his wrist.
As for food, whitefish, bannock, corn on the cob and beans were served to a line stretching across the park, all the way down to city hall.
Around 200 people showed up to the celebrations hosted by the Yellowknives Dene First Nation off the Ingraham Trail along Yellowknife River.
Around 2 p.m., Dene drummers performed as elders passed around tobacco for the feeding of the fire ceremony, after which the tobacco was fed into a fire pit.
The purpose of the ceremony was to give back to the creator and to ask for a blessing.
For Cody Erasmus and Linda Mantla at the Métis celebration, the day was a blast. They said it was a great event to take their young kids to.
For Mantla, the highlight was the fish but for Erasmus it was the socializing.
"(It's) just a day everyone recognizes the aboriginal people of this country," Erasmus said. "It seems like everyone's having a good time right now, even non-aboriginal people are getting involved."
- with files from Robin Grant
