Londoners celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day with dancing, shopping and snacking

Kendra Seguin · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 20, 2025 4:42 PM EDT | Last Updated: 11 hours ago

Hundreds of radical packed the Wortley Village Green successful London connected Friday to bask music, dancing and eating portion taking portion successful National Indigenous Solidarity Day celebrations, besides called Solidarity Day.

"Solidarity Day is simply a time to travel together, stock teachings and celebrations. It's conscionable a time to stock abstraction together," said jewelry shaper Jolene Jamieson, who has been a vendor astatine the lawsuit for 7 years.

This is the 29th twelvemonth of the ceremonial successful Wortley, and immoderate attendees said they've lone seen attendance turn done the years. Crowds gathered passim the time to store for crafts made by Indigenous vendors, eat cuisine similar maize crockery and fry bread, and participating successful dances. 

Following an aboriginal greeting sunrise ceremony, main activities astatine the Green began astatine 11 a.m. erstwhile a ample ellipse of onlookers gathered to ticker dancers and the eagle unit bearer footwear disconnected the day.

Michael Hopkins, a accepted occurrence keeper for N'Amerind Friendship Centre, helped airy a occurrence aboriginal Friday morning, which stayed burning passim the event. 

Hopkins said this National Indigenous People's Day, it's important to stress the request for young radical to transportation connected Indigenous traditions. 

"Every twelvemonth erstwhile we bash it, much younger ones are coming retired and picking it up," helium said, adding that he's noticed galore younker are funny successful learning accepted songs and Indigenous languages. "We're teaching and we're educating the younger ones truthful they tin get a bigger assemblage and they tin beryllium capable to instrumentality implicit to bash what we do."

While activities happened connected the Green Friday, National Indigenous Peoples Day is officially celebrated connected June 21 alongside summer solstice. 

"It [symbolizes] changing. Sometimes it's the commencement of the caller moon," Hopkins explained, adding that the summertime solstice is besides the longest time of the year.

First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities person historically celebrated their civilization during this season, but it wasn't until 1996 that Governor General Roméo LeBlanc declared June 21 arsenic National Aboriginal Day, according to the Government of Canada website. The time was renamed successful 2017. 

"I've been coming since I was a small kid," said Patricia Marshal-Desutter, who said she present brings her ain children to the event. "When I was a kid, determination were a batch little people, but present it's booming, similar hundreds of radical are present close now.

"Now, we really spot solidarity here, which is beautiful," she said. 

Passing on traditions, calling for governmental change

There's a batch of enthusiasm among young Indigenous students to larn astir their ain civilization astatine section schools, according to Thames Valley District School Board learning coordinator Kathleen Doxtator.

"They're anxious to person opportunities to not conscionable just different Indigenous students, but to consciousness connected and to consciousness supported to their identity," said Doxtator, who is from Oneida Nation of the Thames.

Doxtator said different taxable of this year's Solidarity Day celebrations is calling for much propulsion backmost against national Bill C-5, which fundamentally gives the authorities the quality to prime definite economical projects wherever they tin velocity done the regulatory processes.

"A batch of authorities government is affecting Indigenous rights," she said. "We lone person 1 world and we lone person 1 clip to beryllium alive, advocate, talk up, springiness our voices to those things that can't speak, and clasp radical accountable for their actions," she said. 

Despite the timely combat against the projected bill, Doxtator said the emblematic values of Solidarity Day inactive ringing existent this year. 

"Every twelvemonth it's astir community, it's astir connection, it's astir household reconnecting and opportunity," she said.