Hundreds of community members filled the bleachers of the Lummi Nation School gym to mark Indigenous Peoples Day on Monday, Oct. 14.
With the official theme of “One People,” this year’s celebration focused on youth and featured a panel of four student speakers from the Lummi Nation School, and a keynote from Ta’Kaiya Blaney of the Tla’amin Nation in southwestern British Columbia, who has been advocating for Indigenous people and the environment since she was a child.
“Every single day is a good day to be Indigenous,” Lummi Chairman Tony Hillaire said at the event. “But today’s particularly important because we have this outside world that is here witnessing with us and observing and also feeling a little bit of who we are and where we come from.”
Gallery: Lummi, community celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day
The Blackhawk Singers and Dancers closed and opened the event, drums filling up the room with dozens of children and youth dancing all around the space.
In remarks near the beginning of the event, Hillaire said he was recently at the Centennial Accord meeting with tribes and state leaders, discussing the state’s bureaucracy and how the tribes can learn to navigate that. He said the government could learn something from their celebration.
“I think more so the state and the federal government need to learn about our children that are dancing out here on the floor, that are singing our songs, that are speaking our language so they can better understand us when decisions are being made that impact this world,” he said.
Blaney’s keynote focused on the need to resist colonialism, uplift youth and her experience in the Tla’amin Nation’s efforts to restore tiskʷat, the First Nation’s home and salmon fishing site from which they were forcibly removed by the government over 150 years ago. In particular, she said that she and her relatives are pushing to have the dam, which wiped out the salmon runs, removed.
“We’ve been trying to do work to get people to imagine what the future of our territories could look like if we have our river back,” Blaney said. She said it’s been a “meaningful” experience that has given her “purpose” in her community.
Student speakers from Lummi Nation School spoke in a panel about the importance of learning the Lummi language and feeling connected to their culture. Blaney said when she travels to Indigenous territories across the continent, she sees the power of young people coming together.
“I think it’s important that we take that purpose and that empowerment of our youth very seriously and not lose sight of those core values,” she said.
The event is sponsored annually by the Community Consortium for Cultural Recognition, which includes members from Western Washington University, the City of Bellingham, Bellingham Public Schools, Northwest Indian College and more.
Charlotte Alden is CDN’s general assignment/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.
