Glenbow Elementary School will celebrate National Aboriginal Day a week early this Friday.
Although the official date of the event is June 21, the school will host a number of performances, such as Stoney Nakoda drumming, powwow dancing by Daryl Kootenay, the storytelling of Morley elder Sykes Powderface and Raquel Andrew sharing information about the Indian Village at the Calgary Stampede, along with one of the Stoney princesses.
“Glenbow has a long tradition of celebrating Aboriginal Day; it is one of the most anticipated events of the year at our school,” said Brendan Trinca, Glenbow’s principal. “We were proud to have some of our older students share their ‘Warrior Paint’ work at the final Truth and Reconciliation event in Edmonton last year.”
In 1982, the National Indian Brotherhood, now the Assembly of First Nations, called for the creation of National Aboriginal Solidarity Day. In 1995, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples recommended the designation of a National First Peoples Day.
National Aboriginal Day was announced a year later by then governor general Roméo LeBlanc after consultations and statements of support for such a day were made by various Aboriginal groups.
On June 2, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada released its findings after six years of investigation into the former residential school system. It concluded the school system amounted to ‘cultural genocide’ of aboriginal students along with countless cases of physical, psychological and sexual abuse that ‘ran rampant during its existence.’
In the 382-page summary of the commission’s report, 94 recommendations were listed to address the school system’s legacy, such as the creation of a public inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls and the implementation of the UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples.
