GUELPH POLITICAST #83 - Live (ish) From National Aboriginal Day

Guelph marked another National Aboriginal Day on Wednesday bringing First Nations dance, music, culture and food to Downtown Guelph in front of City Hall for all to see. A few hundred people gathered on Carden Street to see a wide swath of Indigenous traditions brought to life, a reminder that as we strive for truth and reconciliation, there's still a culture trying to thrive.

This week's Guelph Politicast comes directly from the street. No, really. It was recorded out and about on Carden Street for National Aboriginal Day and contains excerpts from the speeches and ceremonies as well as interviews with some of the people taking part. While no one will pretend that one day of celebrations will make for centuries of abuse and mistreatment, not to mention efforts to entirely erase the very culture we were there to celebrate, we also can't pretend that for many of us, all we know about Indigenous culture probably (and erroneously) comes from old Westerns.

If you couldn't make it to National Aboriginal Day celebrations this year, this is some of what you missed.

Here's a sample of some of the skills on display at #nationalaboriginalday in #downtownguelph. This 15-year-old hoop dancer is a North American (Turtle Island) champion, and it shows.

A post shared by Adam A. Donaldson (@adamadonaldson) on Jun 21, 2017 at 6:51pm PDT

As to the messages of the day, there was a lot of learning about Indigenous culture, what certain rights and ceremonies mean, a lot of  dancing and music, remarks about how we all need to learn more about our First Nations neighbours and help them preserve their heritage for future generations, and how they have something to teach us all about community and stewardship. You might not be able to get much of the singing, dancing or artistry here, but there's certainly a message to be heard in this week's podcast.

Let's head back to Carden Street and the celebrations of Indigenous culture on this edition of the Guelph Politicast.

The theme music for the Guelph Politicast is from the KPM Klassics collection by Syd Dale.

The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here.

Remember that the Politicast Podbean channel is also the host for podcast versions of Open Sources Guelph. The previous Thursday's episode of Open Sources will be posted on Mondays.