A traditional Blackfoot face-painting event was held at Police Point Park on Friday as part of truth and reconciliation efforts.--News Photo Anna Smith
asmith@medicinehatnews.com
Turnout for Kom Mo Taan, an opportunity to experience part of Blackfoot culture out at Police Point Park on Friday, was encouraging for the idea of truth and reconciliation.
Throughout the morning, residents made their way out to a teepee erected outside the Nature Centre, learning how to make tobacco ties and proper protocol for approaching an Indigenous elder when in need of prayer or advice.
Event organizer Brenda Mercer, a survivor of the 60s Scoop and the woman behind White Horse Rider Co., says she considers this reconciliation in action.
“With September 30 coming up, I really felt it’s important to do more Indigenous things in September. And we came up with this about a month and a half ago; we asked Elder Charlie, and then we got him to name it, because we were trying to help people heal, because I feel like we all have trauma and healing we can do. So this is really true reconciliation,” said Mercer.
The shared that many of those who chose to take part and have their faces painted with ochre, something deeply significant in Blackfoot culture, were so moved by it as to be brought to tears.
Kainai Elder Charlie Fox says it was with great appreciation that he saw non-Indigenous people come out and show respect and curiosity about his culture and way of life.
“I want to encourage people to learn about our ways. From the time I was young, I was taught all the ways of a foreign language and a foreign way of custom for society today,” said Fox. “People know very little about us and we have lived here for thousands of years. We have so many beautiful gifts to share, and that’s the only way, we have to have this kind of engagement so we can create that understanding.”
The event was organized in collaboration between the Medicine Hat Public Library, the Medicine Hat Interpretive Program, White Horse Rider Co and Niitsitapi Kookums Society.
“This is a long time coming, and we know the dark history of Canada is not known by everybody, and it creates a lot of challenges for our people,” said Fox. “Now that we’re starting to acknowledge the truth of what happened and to reconcile, reconciliation is on both sides. People that are well educated, they don’t discriminate. And today is a good example of people that have that understanding, or want to have that understanding.”
It is the hope of those who made the event possible, seeing the level of interest, to return with similar events next year and continue to see the sharing of culture in the name of truth and reconciliation.
