National Indigenous Peoples Day celebration sees large youth turnout

WATCH: Although the official day is on Saturday, there were multiple events on Friday to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day. Damian Smith has more.

While National Indigenous Peoples Day is on Saturday, several events were held in Regina on Friday for residents to celebrate the heritage, cultures, and achievements of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people.

A big theme of this year’s gathering was the education of youth and children, and for them to see Indigenous culture at an early age before learning in later grade school years.

“It’s such an important day to be celebrating,” Minister of Parks, Culture, and Sport Alana Ross said. “Having the children here from the schools, the interaction, giving them the opportunity to learn about art history and the importance of it and the interactive games, that they have was just amazing.”

For Mother Teresa Middle School, educators who are Indigenous know that days like Friday are needed for representation and inclusion.

“Our students can see themselves in me,” said Evan Whitestar, who is an Indigenous advocate at the school. “So, it makes it easier for them to come to the school and work. Education has had a tough history in Canada and that’s a good way to mend the bridge and have some representation in the hallway.”

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The Buffalo Boys from Mother Theresa Middle School, along with youth dancers, performed a powwow dance at the event.

For the second stop of the day, children spent some time at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, practicing the culture by taking part in making friendship bracelets, bison hunting and atlatl throwing.

“The younger we can learn it and the more we can expose our children to that, the better we will be as a culture and as a society,” Ross said. “It’s just wonderful to see the teachers who have taken the time, because it’s a lot of work to bring your students here.”

To many attending, Friday’s edition of National Indigenous Peoples Day felt like the largest gathering that they had ever been a part of in Regina’s history.

There are a few more events planned elsewhere in the province on Saturday.