NORTH BATTLEFORD — Families and friends came together to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day at Library Park in North Battleford on Friday.
The event, which included a free barbecue, bouncy castles, live music and powwow dancing, was organized by the Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs (BATC).
Toy Tootoosis took part in the festivities with his young daughter, Mary-Beth Yutin Tootoosis.
"It's really good," he said. "Well organized. BATC did a good job."
Tootoosis said Indigenous Peoples Day is a good opportunity to celebrate Indigenous culture.
"When I was growing up there was primarily white and Native people," he said. "It's good to see mixed immigration and everybody feeling safe and treating each other equally. I think that's really good."
Tootoosis, who currently resides in North Battleford, said he was originally born in Sweden, so he appreciates seeing people from different traditions all coming together to celebrate the day.
Hannah Oxebin with BATC said it was good to see all the people out to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day.
"Today we're celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day," she said. "Our location at the Library Park is new. We typically had it at the AgriVilla before.
We've opened our doors a little more to the community."
Oxebin said she hopes Indigenous Peoples Day can also be a day of discovering more about Indigenous culture.
"It's important to us to show who we are and to show our culture," she said. "It's just a great opportunity, especially our location that we chose this year, to involve the community. It really showed today we were able to have a multicultural event and be able to show our culture and give that knowledge out. That's what's important to us, just showing who we are."
