By Cheryl Jahn

National Indigenous Peoples’ Day goes the extra mile

Jun 22, 2023 | 2:51 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – As part of the National Indigenous Peoples Day, organizers of the local event went further. They added a music festival and an art festival, turning what was a single-day event last year into a three-day celebration. And it took a lot of people to make it happen.

“Well, it’s been spread out through lots of organizations, so it’s many groups coming together to make this series of days come to pass,” explains Jen Rubadeau, Lead for the National Indigenous Peoples Day Event. “So it’s like later today with National Indigenous Peoples Day, the Northern Indigenous Arts Council, the Community Arts Council, Omineca, and then our friends who are coming here from afar, two Rivers Remix-Movable Feast.”

And there’s a bit of history to the Two Rivers Remix-Movable Feast, made up of thirty people who tour the province to provide music. Prince George is just one of 13 stops this summer. “So they’re the brainchild of bringing all the specific performers that were coming from the lower Mainland area. They move around and host mini feasts throughout the communities and in the province,” explains Jennifer Annais Pighen, Chair, Omineca Artist Run Centre. “Their community burning down, so they would host an annual feast there. So now they’re doing mini feasts through different communities.”

And the artists come from all corners.

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“We tried to create a balance of bringing in talent from other communities, so a lot of them are coming from the island or so of B.C., southern B.C., and local. So regional artists, we have some people coming from Haida Gwaii and you know, it’s just, it’s everybody coming together and performing and sharing their art forms.”

And Jennifer Pighin says, while it’s early to gauge the success of the new three-day event, anecdotally, the reaction has been positive.

“Yesterday I believe we’ve heard the most feedback around this being the best one yet for the National Indigenous People’s Day. People are thrilled that it’s a multi-day festival. We’ve never had a multi-day Indigenous arts festival here yet, so exciting to have our first one kick off with such a bang,” says Annais Pighen.

“It’s one of the first that I’ve kind of heard of that it’s landed on this day. There’s often indigenous music festivals that are kind of throughout Canada. But yeah, being on a starting off on National Indigenous People’s Day is pretty special,” says Rubadeau. And now the challenge will be to do it all again next year.