Gardens, canoes, bannock and sweetgrass: National Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration

Trout Lake is my neighbourhood park. I have jogged many kilometres around its banks, eaten many potluck dishes on the grass, wandered many Saturdays through the farmers’ market, played in the playgrounds with my son and even dared to swim in the water on a hot smokey summer day. It’s where I live. Today, I was happy to share this corner of East Vancouver with some friends from our CFE. After meeting at a local coffee shop, I lead everyone through our local community garden to salivate and take in all it’s rainbow colours, and then onto the Copley Community Orchard to enjoy the fruit trees and gooseberry bushes. 

Cedar Cottage Community Garden 

As we arrived at the park, I was instantly struck by the beauty of the canoes floating on the water, something that I’ve never seen, as boating of any kind is normally not allowed on the lake. It almost seemed like the lake had longed for these canoes until today. 

We celebrated our arrival at the festivities with some delicious bannock while the parade arrived at the entrance of the park. Divine! We settled on our picnic blanket near the main bandstand to eat our lunch and listen to the opening prayer, drumming and song. All around us, families, neighbours, friends and mostly children criss-crossed apple sauced in the grass to enjoy the wonderful music and dancing. I was keeping an eye out for my son who was attending the celebration with his class. It was fun to sneak up and kiss him on the head when I spotted him sitting among his friends. 

Bannock! 

We can't stop weaving!

After some time, we meandered to the teepee which was filled to the brim with surprisingly attentive children listening to a story about rock-paper-scissors. Sitting among these sweaty little ones inside this canvas teepee was so delightful. 

The best story time ever! 

Our slow aimless walk led us to the dusty field where various tents were set up. A mix of tables were displaying local services, art, and education opportunities. The dust was swirling up into the air mixed with the aromatic scent of sweetgrass as we made our way back through the park and I felt very grateful to my indigenous neighbours for having welcomed us to this wonderful celebration!