MILLBROOK - Dark clouds offer a threat of rain that never comes as native singers chant and drummers pound out an accompanying beat.
Young children smile excitedly while others, native and non-native alike, look on with a variety of enthralled expressions – wonderment, bemusement or, simply, the pleasing look of just being here.
"The rain held off anyway, that's one good thing," Millbrook band chief Lawrence Paul joked during his opening address to his community's National Aboriginal Day powwow.
"He did the sun dance yesterday," Paul continued in his light-hearted manner regarding invited guest Steve Graham, the RCMP's Deputy Commissioner of the Atlantic Region. "That's why the rain held off."
Joking aside, however, Paul described the day's activities, which were mirrored in communities right across Canada, as being especially important for young and old alike, in terms of promoting our "culture and traditions."
"I think it's very fine that we have this day in order to bring our culture and our heritage to the forefront for other people to know what our ancestors (did) in the past and what we're doing now and what we are going to do in the future," Paul said.
That sentiment was shared by Blanche Mousseau, a life-long Millbrook resident, who stood watching the dancers with a broad smile etched across her face.
"I think it's a celebration of our heritage, our culture," she says. "And the exposure of Aboriginal Day, I think, is a great awareness for Canadian people, for them to see. It's for everyone but especially for the Mi'kmaq people. It instills pride in our children, pride of who they are, where they come from."
For Carol Francis, also of Millbrook, unity among her people is also a big part of what the day is all about.
"It's not one particular community, it's like, around," she says, of the bringing together of native communities from near and far.
"And we need that kind of reassurance for our children because they are the generation that is going to be carrying us on ... it's showing our people who we are. And it's reinforcing for our children, the generation behind us, what they can accomplish through all this and what it is."
Participants included dancers and drummers from Millbrook, Indian Brook and Eskasoni and many of the approximately 150 spectators also came from away communities. The day's activities involved varying activities, inlcuding a flute circle, a hoop dance, a hand drum competition and a magic show.
An evening concert was also planned by Lonecloud.
Fast facts:
– National Aboriginal Day was first proclaimed in 1996 by former Gov. Gen. Romeo LeBlanc as an opportunity for Canadians to show their respect for the aboriginal community and learn more about the rich heritage of Canada's First Nations people.
– It is celebrated through powwows across the country on the summer solstice, the longest day of the year and the first day of summer.
– Traditionally, summer solstice is the day on which many aboriginal communities celebrate their cultural and spiritual beliefs.
