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‘We’re going to paddle together’: Stz’uminus Welcomed Community for a Day of Culture and Learning
Hundreds gathered on Stz’uminus homelands on Tuesday, June 21 to mark National Indigenous Peoples Day, and like many other groups around “Canada” that day, celebrated a day of culture, listening and learning.
Members of the Stz’uminus and “Ladysmith” communities came together at “Transfer Beach;” hundreds of students from schools nearby attended, as well as families, Stz’uminus chief and council, “Ladysmith” mayor and council, as well as musicians, artists, dancers, and local organizations...
The day is celebrated annually on the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.
Both Stz’uminus First Nation Chief, Roxanne Harris, and Mayor of “Ladysmith,” Aaron Stone, welcomed those present.
Chief Harris took a moment in front of the microphone to recognize the residential “school” survivors, 60s Scoop survivors, and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in their community. She spoke of her dad, who survived residential “school,” and came out with a few scars.
She also spoke of their community’s bright future.
“The way that we try to heal and get through these events is that, in the present, we celebrate opening our own schools, having our own daycare, having our own economic development,” she said, “It’s just a reminder that in our Nation we run our own governance,” she said.
“Our goal is, in the end: to have our own ability to run our nation and support ourselves in our own way. There’s a lot of things we look forward to in our future, and in the future we’re trying to blaze a way for our children, and our unborn grandchildren.”