Eagle Village’s Aboriginal Day more than drumming and dancing

By Jamie-Lee McKenzie

EAGLE VILLAGE FIRST NATION – National Aboriginal Day has just wrapped up and for many First Nations – a day was filled with celebration. This was no different for Eagle Village First Nation.

Throughout the drumming could be heard. There were many different types of traditional dancers and they could all be seen throughout the day.

Many of the activities and booths throughout the day helped to teach the people about Algonquin culture. Wolf Lake First Nation had a booth which explained all the edible plants in the area and Eagle Village had a booth that gave a lot of information about traditional culture and the history of residential schools.

The bannock tasting was definitely a popular booth during the festival.

“I am volunteering my time today for Aboriginal Day, to make bannock, since bannock is a traditional food for our people,” said Jimmy Constant, a volunteer cook for the day.

Some Eagle Village community members also had their own booths to showcase and sell their crafts.

There was a lot of participation from local community members and people who had never been to the community before.

“It’s beautiful, it’s a beautiful day and I’m happy to see a lot of people here that I’ve never seen before,” said Constant.

“It was a group effort and took a lot of planning, but it turned out to be a pretty awesome day,” says Justin Roy, one of the organizers for the event. “Just to be able to hear all the people and the kids running around and the laughs and the music and the drummers, you couldn’t ask for a better day,” said Roy.

The day began with the opening ceremony which had an Elder from the community doing an Elder’s prayer. There was also a small ceremony for the local regalia making group. To give thanks to the group for all the hard work they have done in creating their outfits. Each person had the chance to show off the regalia they created.

Roy explained that Eagle Village had a lot of help in the planning of the event.

“Wolf Lake [First Nation] were the ones who took care of getting all the drummers and dancers for the day,” said Roy. “It was a group effort and their hard work made the day even better.”