Aboriginal Day

Jeff Green | Jun 13, 2018

The Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation is celebrating Aboriginal Day this year with the presentation of a family friendly event for the entire community.

From 4pm to 6pm on Thursday, June 21st the interactive Frontenac Skies Bucket Drummers, along with aboriginal women’s drummers, will be entertaining and inviting kids and adults to join in. Puppetry, crafts and beading will be featured, and at 5pm there will be a strawberry teaching ceremony, shared by Kokum Makwa.

Chief Doreen Davis of the Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation decided to sponsor the festival when she found out that the Strawberry Moon Festival, which had been run during school hours for the last 12 years, was not going to happen this year.

“I thought that it was important to hold a family event, for everyone, to mark Aboriginal Day, share our culture and build bridges between people, and to share some strawberries. So we decided to make a start, even in a small way, this year,” she said.

Davis also said that it is important to her and the other Algonquin Land Claim negotiators, who hold meetings for several days at a time throughout the year, to halt their meetings on Aboriginal Day and head back to their communities.

“The celebration will be a great way for us to do that,” said Davis, who now needs to make sure she can find a good supply of strawberries for the festivities.

The Aboriginal Day celebration at the Sharbot Lake Beach is a free event.