(Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)

By Ben Tompkins

National Indigenous Peoples Day

Marguerite Riel Centre hosts Indigenous Gathering

Jun 20, 2024 | 4:25 PM

The Marguerite Riel Centre (MRC) put on an Indigenous Gathering at the Kerry Vickar Centre on Thursday, in honour of National Indigenous People’s Day, which is on Friday.

From 9 a.m. until 4 p.m., speakers, powwows and other activities were held, with anyone being welcome.

“We really wanted to do something to give recognition and get that unity together. It was really important for us to have as much representation as possible and we just want to educate and create a safe place for people to feel like they can come and learn. Our end goal is unity and reconciliation,” said MRC resolution health support worker, Syndel Thomas-Kozar.

“We’re just trying to honour the past, with our elders and our ancestors, and also honour the future. We really wanted to honour all those elements and have different aspects of those Indigenous experiences in our presentations today. Then with our information, we’re just really trying to give that representation to all groups.”

The day also featured a handful of guests, as world-renowned hoop dancer Terrance Littletent was part of the program, along with motivational speakers Tania Ross and Blain Constant.

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Topics such as addictions, abuse, incarceration, and overcoming past obstacles were discussed.

Meanwhile, messages like ‘the strongest people that you can think of in your life need help at times too’, ‘addictions are an attempted form of escape’, ‘there is always a life beyond the addictions and the trauma’, and ‘our best is going to look different every single day but as long as we are doing our best we’re going to be just fine’.

“A big part of reconciliation is learning from each other’s experiences. It’s so important to hear from these individual experiences because it really does give a picture of the whole encompassing population. These experiences are their stories, but they’re the experiences of the indigenous population, often as a whole,” Thomas-Kozar added.

“It’s just about stories of coming back from the traumas and the tribulations of your past and looking forward to a brighter and better future of taking care of one another.”

People who attended the event reportedly came from across the province, some of who are from Montreal Lake, Prince Albert and Nipawin.

There were also roughly 50 kids from Reynolds School in Melfort who came by to see the powwow.

(Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)

“I am really happy with our turnout, we had some of our highest numbers of registrants for this event. People really travelled out to come and learn and be empowered today. I’m just really grateful for everyone, not just the workers, but the participants who came and made this event possible,” Thomas-Kozar told northeastNOW.

“I think that it is so important that these schools are taking active roles in educating and exposing our children to indigenous cultures because they are the ones who are going to preserve it.”

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