Students gathered at Spencer Middle School to celebrate Indigenous culture ahead of National Indigenous Peoples Day on June 21.
Joseph Singers and Dancers from Esquimalt Nation were there at the Langford school on (Wednesday) June 14 to perform. Afterwards, the students broke into groups to learn about different aspects of Indigenous culture.
“This wasn’t something we did when I was a student here and that’s not a criticism of the school that was just the way things were at the time. We didn’t really celebrate like this, but it’s so nice that we do now. It’s 2023 and it’s really never too late to start trying new things, especially in the schools,” said Ren Louie, who is Nuu-Chah-Nulth from the Ahousaht First Nation and a former Spencer student.
Students from Ruth King Elementary school also attended the event.
National Indigenous Peoples Day is officially marked on June 21, and was first celebrated in 1996 after Governor General Romeo LeBlanc declared the day National Aboriginal Peoples Day (it was renamed in 2017). June is also National Indigenous History Month, marked since 2009.
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