Lac La Biche County observed National Indigenous Peoples Day on Friday, June 21 throughout the region. It is a day that acknowledges the traditions, cultures and contributions of the First Nations and Metis communities of the area.
Indigenous groups and local officials took part in celebrating the heritage of Indigenous people, as several events were hosted throughout the area last week — one main event being Friday's community wide Indigenous Peoples Day celebration hosted by Lac La Biche Metis Nation of Alberta Region 1 at the McArthur Place.
The all-day event saw local school kids, community members, Indigenous elders and local officials celebrate in their own way. Indigenous games and craft, rock painting, and a petting zoo at the park kept the kids busy and active all day, while others enjoyed dancing and jigging to music played by a local Kikino-based band called Last Minute at the McArthur Park gazebo.
There was plenty of free food to go around as well. While crew from the Lac La Biche Mission served burgers to a long queue of people at lunch, volunteers kept the McArthur Room kitchen warm as they served traditional stew and bannock for supper.
Students learned how to make talking sticks from Community Learning summer student Kashina Houle-howse
Lena Houle-howse poses with her talking stick on Fri June 21, at McArthur Place
Local Metis band Last Minute performed at the festitives.
Lise Rouleau is the Executive Director with the Lac La Biche Metis Nation of Alberta, and one of the organizers of the event. After a successful first year that saw a turnout of at least a thousand community members, the group can't wait to organize more community events to keep the locals engaged, says Rouleau as she spoke with the POST.
"This is the first year we have done it... It was amazing, we had at least a thousand here... All the schools participated, they bused all their students down... Some walked their students down. All the day-care kids came. The Mission close so they can come here and do the cooking so, everyone got together and collaborated and it was just amazing. We are going to actually continue that. I have asked if we can be a community standing committee because, if we are in small groups there's only the little pieces that we can do but, if we come together we can make it (the events) even bigger. We have Metis weekends up in the fall and we will work on that together," said Rouleau.