Opening ceremony at Red Deer Polytechnic's first Indigenous Culture Camp. (rdnewsNOW/Alessia Proietti)

By Alessia Proietti

June 1-2, 2022

Red Deer Polytechnic hosts first Indigenous Culture Camp on campus

Jun 1, 2022 | 4:15 PM

With June as National Indigenous History Month, Red Deer Polytechnic (RDP) held its first Indigenous Culture Camp on Wednesday.

The school is providing teachers, students and community members who preregistered, with what they say is “a learning opportunity to engage with Indigenous ways of knowing and being”.

The two day camp from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. includes sessions of Métis History and Story, Social Protocols and Child Rearing, Cree Tipi Teachings, and Inuit Cultural Connections, among others, by Elders and Knowledge Keepers from central Alberta, other areas of the province and the nation.

“You can expect great conversation and lots of opportunity for connection and to learn a bit more about who Indigenous people are, the different groups. There’s First Nation, Métis, Inuit and within those three groups there’s numerous other variations and cultures and languages,” said Lloyd Desjarlais, Director of Indigenous Services at RDP.

On a campus filled with varying colored tipis and other Indigenous structures, a Pipe Ceremony was privately held this morning in a tipi to commence the cultural camp.

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It was followed by an opening ceremony, where attendees gathered around in a circle to music by traditional drumming.

Speakers, elders, school faculty, Mayor Ken Johnston, and other involved members held flags as they walked around the inner circle.

Participants were then broken off into groups designated by animal for a teaching session with each of the nine speakers.

Speaker Phillip Campiou, who also delivers cultural presentations to schools in the Edmonton area, is hosting one of the teaching sessions about tipis, traditional gardens and medicines. A Treaty 8 Elder in northern Alberta, he says his tribe goes by the Cree name Nehiyaw, rather than “Woodland Cree”, meaning a four-bodied person representing the mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional components.

But the camp, Campiou says, is more than just about the topics being discussed.

“That’s part of what today is about. It’s bringing what we are and who we are as a person. Not just Indigenous; but as a person. It’s not about being here first but knowing to understand the concepts of Mother Nature, the reality. And that’s what our people did. We lived in harmony with nature and that’s what we have to go back to; to know how to do that,” he said.

Both Desjarlais and Campiou echoed a similar statement that one of the main purposes of the event was to further work on Truth & Reconciliation.

Teaching sessions with the speakers will also be held on Thursday on the campus’ east soccer field, with booths for Indigenous vendors and organizations.

The closing ceremony will consist of dance performances, retiring of the flags raised and a prayer.

The cultural camp is a collaboration between RDP, Red Deer Public Schools, Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools and the Central Alberta Regional Consortium, among the aid of other organizations.