The Wakamow Aboriginal Community Association (WACA) is hosting a gathering tonight to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day, an event that also happens to be 25 years old.
The association is holding a summer solstice fireside social tonight at Connor Park starting at 6 p.m. Participants can expect smudging, hot dogs, s’mores, a campfire, drumming, and fellowship with others.
Lori Deets, chair of the association, thought it was interesting that the event was 25 years old. It reminded her of the current relationship between Canada and the Indigenous community and how negative it seems to be.
“But I’d also like to think on the positive side of things, though; 25 years of Indigenous people standing up for who they are, right?” she continued. “We’ve been here (in Canada) a long, long time. Twenty-five years is a small smidgen of how long we’ve been here.”
Deets noted that this year’s event will be extra special since WACA took a long break from hosting anything after the pandemic was declared in March 2020. The association is using the celebration tonight to reconnect with family and friends who haven’t been seen since the pandemic began.
Even though this event isn’t on the first day of summer — that was June 20 — it’s still important to celebrate, she added.
The wider Moose Jaw community is always invited to WACA’s events, including this one, but the association will still have to abide by public health guidelines for crowd sizes, Deets said. WACA plans to hold several smaller educational events throughout the summer that could attract more people overall to make up for limited crowd sizes.
Connor Park is in Wakamow Valley, just off Ninth Avenue Southwest.
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