Hello, tansi,
It's me, Lance Cardinal, from
the Treaty Eight Bigstone Cree Nation.
I'm so excited to be here today at
IKEA in the Indigenous Peoples
families showcase to talk about
National Indigenous Peoples Day.
Such an important day for me
and all the people in the First Nations,
Metis, and Inuit community.
And I'm so excited because
this day is the day we celebrate who we are,
our culture, our traditions,
and of course, our place here on
Mother Earth.
This day is about knowledge exchange,
knowledge translation.
These days are about teaching,
about who we are as Lnu'k. Lnu'k are M'ikmaw,
we call the people of our land here.
And this day is about sharing our way of life.
Sharing about who we are as people,
how we may live,
how our knowledge is
transformed into objects and art,
and magnifying the importance
of our knowledge on pieces of art.
So that's very important.
Well, being a part of this
amazing family showcase room
we have here at IKEA was
such an amazing experience for me.
and of course the family who was involved.
And it was so important, of course,
to have representation here at IKEA,
for Indigenous People to
have something here that
was recognizable for our people
to see ourselves being represented,
and of course to share who we
are with the whole world.
This partnership means a lot.
It really means that we're
bringing two of our worlds together.
Basically, it means that we
are trying to understand their perspectives,
trying to understand
where world view come from.
And how do these world views converge into
a place that makes
it a welcoming place for Indigenous People,
but also a welcoming place
for other people to come
to IKEA, for example.
So that's part of what
is this partnership is about.
And also talking about what it is we
can do to make those processes take place.
How do we have the conversation,
for example, how do
we engage with our community?
How do we consult with?
Who to consult and how do we consult
with making those first steps?
So this is about that partnership
and making things happen.
So that's important. We know a lot of people
who come through the room
that I've spoken to,
who are from our First
Nations, Metis or Inuit community
feel so excited to
see ourselves being represented.
There's so much pride in their heart.
They talk about just
feeling like we finally belong.
We're finally part of Canadian culture
and that's one step
closer towards reconciliation.
Towards having a place
in society that is equal,
that is celebrated in a good way.
And I think for us as Indigenous People,
it's been a very positive experience.
It's an amazing opportunity
to highlight who we are as M'ikmaw
in a space like this where people can see
themselves in a big company like this.
We're taking responsibility,
sharing who we are,
but also welcoming a place
where we can be who we are.
One of the important pieces about
this project is about relationship building.
It's about community engagement.
It is about consulting
properly and how to
consult with their community in,
let's say, building knowledge around who we
are or sharing
knowledge of who we are as well as Lnu'k.
So those are ways in which IKEA did
an excellent job in reaching out to our community,
because basically it's
based on relationships, right?
Well, you know what?
I think my favorite part of
this room is the fact
that there's language here,
like sharing Cree language and
syllabics on the walls, in the cupboards,
on the shelves all over the place
sharing those words and
those syllabics are so important to
us to keep that language alive.
And the language is the voice of our people.
It's the voice of the spirit world.
It's the voice of the people
on the planet right now.
My mom, during her later mid-years,
began to take up basket making again.
So she started with
baskets and hash baskets and then making
sure that the baskets were
a process of bringing
knowledge back into our community.
And so she started teaching basket
making in Millbrook, for example,
she started teaching basket making with
people who are young and youth and children.
She started with our family.
So that was an important thing
that you would see in
our living room or in
our spaces, in our place.
So that was very important. So we
sadly lost our mother
back in 2010.
Just about,
three weeks before his passing,
she had given me a Christmas gift,
which was her last basket.
And that basket is
a porcupine quill basket with birch bark.
And it's something that's very meaningful.
And with that, started
my collection with the rest
of the pieces that I have here.
The way I'm going to celebrate
National Indigenous Peoples Day
is how I always do,
which is sharing our love and
spirituality of our culture with everybody.
Doing my best to
promote positivity for Indigenous People,
to share who we are in a good way and to
continue to interact with every community
I can, especially non-Indigenous communities,
to find ways to bridge
that understanding of each other.
To find ways to connect and to
really meet each other in the middle.
And I think that the best part about
National Indigenous Peoples Day
is finding those things for ourselves.
How can we celebrate
National Indigenous Peoples Day?
How can we learn something
new about the Indigenous people in
our community and reach out
to them and go to their events.
So I just think this
is an amazing opportunity for
everybody this time of
the year to really
celebrate indigenous people.
Learn more about Indigenous People
and be a part of
our community whenever you can.