Metis Cultural Rendezvous coming to Moose Jaw

The ongoing mission of New Southern Plains Metis Local 160 to expand and grow First Nations and Metis culture in the province is about to take a major step in a positive direction.

The local organization will host a Metis Cultural Rendezvous on June 23 at the Moose Jaw Wildlife Federation building, bringing in representatives from the five Locals currently active in Western Region 3 as well as groups from the Saskatchewan francophone community, RCMP, Moose Jaw police, city of Moose Jaw and school divisions.

They’ll have a chance to take part in a wide variety of workshops covering a large spectrum of the Metis and First Nations way of life.

“The whole idea is to get more information to more people and introduce people to the culture, which is why the RCMP, police and schools are participating,” explained event organizer Darrell Hawman. “The more awareness we have out there of Metis culture, the more we partner with groups, the better it is for all of us.” Patrons will have a chance to take part in events demonstrating Michif – the Metis language – along with traditional cooking, beading and jigging demonstrations to go along with the always popular Red River cart building workshop conducted by George Fayant.

The event is sponsored by the Gabriel Dumont Institute and Sask Culture through funding from Sask Lotteries.

Things get underway at 8 a.m. with breakfast and workshops and will continue through the day with short breaks featuring fiddle playing and jigging demonstrations. A meeting will be held between Local presidents and keystone consultants in the afternoon and a regional conference meeting will take place in the evening.

The staggered set up of workshops is by design so attendees can take in as much as possible without missing anything.

“They’ll be able to do one and then the other,” Hawman said. “Since we’re inviting the executive of the five Locals, we want to make sure that each of them has a chance to get into a different workshop. So, when they take the information and go back to their own local community, they can reproduce it there. The whole event is built around culture and capacity and we’re looking forward to giving everyone who takes part an opportunity to learn about the Metis and First Nations culture.”