'You feel more connected': Thousands turn out for STC Pow Wow
More than four thousand people attended the Saskatoon Tribal Council (STC) Pow Wow and Concert at SaskTel Centre on Friday.
The event featured a concert from Canadian country music star, George Canyon.
A product of Nova Scotia, who only recently discovered his Mi’kmaw heritage, Canyon said days like today are about learning and connecting.
“Just to be a part of it and learning more and more, you feel more connected,” he told CTV news.
“Everyone feels connected and that’s what we need to do. Even if you don't have Indigenous heritage.”
Canyon says his heritage was hidden from his family by his great aunt until about five years ago.
“They were bullied back in Nova Scotia when they grew up and they were called all these names, and they didn’t want the next generation to suffer that pain,” he said.
“But I’ve since learned that my great grandmas were full Mi’kmaw and I’m learning more and more about my history. So getting to be a part of something like this is very important to me personally.”
The National Day of Truth and Reconciliation is meant to remember the survivors and families of residential schools. While Canyon said it’s easy to be distracted by negativity in the word, coming together builds a sense of community.
“We need more community now than we ever have and less divisiveness,” said Canyon, a Juno award winner and member of the Nova Scotia Country Music Hall of Fame.
“And I think opportunities to come together like this for the whole province, it just means the world to me.”
STC chief Mark Arcand said to him, the day was about three things.
“To me, today is a significant day about culture, language and identity,” Arcand told CTV News. “This is why we wanted to do a pow wow. To put it back on the forefront of our people, and healing from the residential schools and the trauma so they can come to some sort of resolution.”
Celebrating culture, language and identity is the way to move forward from the trauma left behind by the residential school system, Arcand said.
“A lot of people are saying we’ve got to forgive, but how do we move forward? By practising our identity and being proud of who we are.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.
Pilot reported fire onboard plane carrying fuel, attempted to return to Fairbanks just before crash
One of the two pilots aboard an airplane carrying fuel reported there was a fire on the airplane shortly before it crashed and burned outside Fairbanks, killing both people on board, a federal aviation official said Wednesday.