Kettle and Stony Point First Nation celebrates Solidarity Day in novel ways
By Colin Graf
CHIPPEWAS OF KETTLE & STONY POINT FIRST NATION— Faced with the cancellation of most Solidarity Day activities, event organizers came up with some novel ways of involving the community in fun activities while also maintaining coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic social distancing protocols.
Melodie Bressette, executive assistant to Chief Jason Henry, explains that lawn-decorating, car decorating ‘Nish-style’ and even decorating your ‘Rez Dog’ and sharing the end results online were part of the fun this year; adding that the fireworks and usual festivities did not take place due to the pandemic.
“I was just trying to think outside the box; I knew we needed something for kids, adults, families— for everyone,” she expresses. “The week before, Solidarity Day began with a family scavenger hunt, which had a great response with pictures of the results being posted within 40 minutes of the items being announced….I think the adults got into it more than the kids.”
Some items, such as animals, were proving hard to find, so participants were allowed to submit photos of the items instead of the real thing. Surprisingly, one of the hardest to find was a penny.
Lawn decorating ‘Nish-style’ seemed to puzzle some people for a while, according to Bressette.
“Everybody was asking me about that, and I just said, ‘Do whatever your Nish-style is. It’s up to you!’”
According to Bressette, the first place winner, Suzie Bressette, “went all out”; placing rocks around a blue blanket to represent water and shoreline with a canoe in the middle seating a doll figure.
“One woman made the medicine wheel in her backyard but didn’t submit it,” Bressette notes.
A writing contest for a 75-100 word story or poem on the theme, “What it means to be Indigenous”, proved to be very popular with 14 entries, predominately children and youth, so organizers decided not to rank the entries. Among the adult entries came one from a woman who said she has not written a poem since high school.
“I don’t want to discourage anyone, so I decided I would get them all something.”
Lots of dog treats were given out for almost 20 entrants in the best-dressed dog contest. Bressette and her helpers decided to open the judging to the whole community, with two days allotted for online voting.
“Lots of people were trying to get others to vote for their dog with Facebook messages,” Bressette says.
Decorated cars, guessing the number of candies in a jar, and a mini writing contest for younger children, were also part of the fun. Bressette was surprised by the number of entries.
“Every child who wrote about what it means to be First Nations received a ‘Proud to be Indigenous’ t-shirt or a t-shirt with images of Kettle Point and Stony Point,” says Bressette.
Fireworks usually scheduled for Solidarity Day have been postponed to the Labour Day weekend, with the usual reciting of memorial names for Nation members who have passed into the Spirit World in the last year, she explains.
Other winners included Leah Rogers, 2nd place in the lawn contest, along with Princess Blue and owner Rudy Bressette; 1st place dog, Lily and owner Tyler Greenbird; 2nd place dog; and Miingin and owner Jeremiah Lunham, 3rd place dog. In the car-decorating contest, 1st place went to Charlotte and Marjorie Henry, with Lynn Milliken taking 2nd. Winners of the writing contest were (unranked) Natasha George, Kim Smith, and Alabama Bressette. Natasha George also took 1st in the “Proud to be Indigenous” photo contest, with 2nd going to Joanna Cloud, and 3rd to Winona Bressette.