For Friday it was students, and on Saturday the public was invited to attend the annual Aboriginal Heritage Festival at the county museum here.
Organized by Centre Wellington District High School teacher Jack Frimeth, the event has been held in the area for several years. It began at the high school but Frimeth said holding it at the museum enabled the organizers to more easily host students.
Further, he said, people generally feel a museum event is more open and holding it at the school tends to make them believe it is only for those with a connection there.
“It was absolutely wonderful day,” he said in an interview of the opening day. There were over 160 students attending from both school boards.
Frimeth said part of the idea behind the festival is to restore pride in heritage. He explained there are a number of descendants of Native peoples attending the high school, but only about one in three will actually admit to that. He said in some cases students’ parents ask them to keep that quiet.
“For every one who declares [status] there are two or three who don’t want to declare,” he said.
“We’re trying to reach out to those students.”
The festival is one of the few in the world that includes First Nations, Inuit, and Metis, and Frimeth said, “we’re proud” of that distinction.
The event featured vendors and artists, workshops, speakers, and all kinds of entertainment.
There was even a hip hop rap group,” Frimeth said with a smile.
The show featured a number of artists, vendors of all kinds of goods, and a display about diabetes and its detection and prevention because First Nations people have had a tendency to that disease.
The event is held to benefit the Southern Ontario Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative, and Frimeth said while fundraising is a part of the day, no matter what the amount raised, it is money that was not available in any case.
This year the event raised $1,080.
