Quesnel Tillicum Society Native Friendship Centre will host its annual Indigenous Peoples' Day celebrations on June 21st at the Helen Dixon Centre.
The event will celebrate Indigenous culture and history with dancing, drumming, cultural displays, stories and so much more. It is a free event and open to the public.
Tony Goulet is executive director of the Friendship Centre and said the event will be packed with all kinds of things to celebrate Indigenous culture, history and people.
"It's telling the community that we are here," he said about the day. He said the purpose of the event is for Indigenous people to share who they are. "We share traditions, we share our culture and don't be scared. We get a lot of people that come and they say they're scared to."
The event starts at 9 a.m. on the 21st and goes until 2:30 p.m. Goulet said in previous years there have been between 1,000 and 2,000 people going through the different booths and stations. He hopes the graduates-to-be from Correlieu can make it to the event but acknowledged because it is the same day as graduation they might not be able to. He added kids from all of the elementary schools and the daycare will be there.
"It'll be fun for them. There'll be little games, little puzzles," Goulet said. "CNC is doing reading, they do it in the tipi where they read stories and have story time."
The event will have people from First Nations from all over the area including the Lhtako Dene Nation, Nazko Nation, Lhoosk'uz Dene Nation and ?Esdilagh First Nation. The Métis Association will also be involved.
Goulet hopes members of the community learn something.
"I hope that they take away something, some type of culture. There'll be everything from beading to button making to jigging to dancing to just about anything," he said. "So hopefully the community takes a piece of that. Usually the kids go away with a little bit of knowledge of what Indigenous is and who we are."
The event has been happening since National Indigenous Peoples' Day (formerly National Aboriginal Day) was first announced in 1996. The June 21st date was chosen for the day to coincide with the summer solstice which is culturally significant for some First Nations across Canada.