Yellowknife Celebrates Indigenous Peoples Day

Hundreds of Yellowknife residents gathered together at the Somba K’e Civic Plaza to help celebrate Indigenous People’s Day.

With arts and crafts, live music, sunny skies, and plenty of freshly cooked fish, it was a perfect occasion for locals to come out with their friends and family.

Nearly a dozen grills were lined up end to end, cooking mouth-watering seafood that drew a line long enough to reach the police station, nearly a block away. Once the crowd had properly gathered, several speakers took to the stage to share their thoughts and best wishes on the festivities.

The president of the North Slave Metis Alliance was the first to speak.

“In the last two years, we Metis, Indigenous, and First Nations people, along with our fellow Yellowknifers have experienced upheavals such as the threat of fires and floods due to the effects of climate change. This year, we all pray that we’ll be spared throughout the North, so that we may rebuild and recover and begin to move on with our lives. Our hearts go out to the people of Fort Good Hope, already impacted by fires this year.

“We also face these and other threats together at different times, and we need to reach out and help each other and learn together, as we should. Our Indigenous peoples, working together, can be a powerful tool to shape the future of the Northwest Territories.”

Yellowknife Deputy Mayor Garret Cochrane also shared a few strong words.

“This moment in our city’s history was never guaranteed. It has not been a linear point from this city’s founding in 1934 to now celebrating National Indigenous Peoples Day in 2024, as National Indigenous Peoples Day would have been preposterous to the settlers who first inhabited Old Town.

“The policies and interactions with the original Indigenous inhabitants were those of primarily of cruelty, ignorance, and segregation. Prohibiting Indigenous people from basic dignity and access to services on their land is an immense embarrassment that will forever be a blight on the very soul of the North.

“This was our founding era. An era of spite and a terrible beginning to the relationship Indigenous and non-indigenous in Yellowknife, and an era we should never forget. “

After the speeches had concluded, live music and Metis fiddle dances were performed for the crowd, keeping everyone’s spirits high for the rest of the afternoon.