First Nations celebrate culture, resiliency

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This article was published 21/06/2025 (335 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The scent of tobacco swept through The Forks Saturday morning as elders kicked off National Indigenous Peoples Day celebrations with traditional water and pipe ceremonies.

Performers from First Nations, Métis, and Inuit backgrounds entertained hundreds of community members who gathered at the historic site with music and dance, while elders shared teachings of their culture’s history and traditions.

Among the artists shedding light on Indigenous music was Kieran Maytwayashing, a fiddler (violin) player from the Lake Manitoba First Nation and the Long Plain First Nation.

Maytwayashing, who’s played the fiddle for more than three years now, said he does it to honour the late Clifford Maytwayashing, another violin player from his community.

“I’ve always heard it. It’s what I listened to all the time growing up, and he was the one who inspired me,” he said. “I try to keep on his legacy by playing those tunes he played, and it’s just been going ever since.”

Maytwayashing received a phone call a few weeks ago from the organizer of The Forks event, Kíwétinohk Consulting — an organization serving individuals, organizations, and communities across northern Manitoba — asking if he wanted to perform on Indigenous Peoples Day because they had liked his music on social media. He said he was thrilled by the invitation.

“It’s important that more people come to know more about us and what we do. It’s normal in our communities, but I’m glad to see this stuff happening here in Winnipeg as well to show other people what the culture is like and experience it for themselves,” said Maytwayashing.

He also uses music as a tool to comfort others, such as those currently displaced from their homes due to the wildfires in northern Manitoba. He plans to visit the soccer complex evacuation centre on Leila Avenue and perform for the evacuees staying there.

Joanne Nimik, 53, from Swan Lake, came to The Forks to enjoy the live music as well as to witness Indigenous Peoples’ resiliency.

“It’s beautiful that in spite of things that Indigenous people have been through, time and time again, we rise up,” Nimik said. “We get up, dust ourselves off, and we keep going. That speaks to the spirit inside all of us.”

Nimik is Ojibwe and an intergenerational residential school survivor. She said it’s refreshing to see society coming together and bringing some cohesiveness, as opposed to the division her mother experienced.

“It’s been a hard road for a lot of folks to even come to attend events like this. To go learn about their history and their culture and their traditions and their language and what they want to learn, what they need to learn,” she said. “We’re starting to make a change, and we have to, but we have to rely on each and every one of us to make that change.”

Nimik works closely with Indigenous communities with the Bear Clan Patrol. She said despite trying times with the wildfires, it’s important to remember there is always a community to help each other out.

“I really hope and pray that a lot of people are coming together and supporting each other and rebuilding on hope, trust, love, courage, and faith. Rise from the ashes, so to speak,” she said.

massimo.deluca-taronno@freepress.mb.ca