Hello Métis Youth!
We are back from the Back to Batoche Days festival! The festival was an 8 day event held in Saskatoon at the historic site of the Battle of Batoche. This year's festival was bigger than ever to mark the 125th anniversary of the Métis Nation.
We had an amazing time with the Métis Centre of NAHO's youth group and staff.
We camped out right on site to ensure that we would not miss any of the great activities!
There were beading and capote making workshops, bannock bake offs, fiddling, jigging and square dancing performances, a rodeo and much more!
It was a great week that showcased Métis pride and culture!
Were you at Batoche this year (or in other years)? If so, please write in and tell us about your favourite Batoche memory.
This picture is at the front entrance of Batoche on the second day of the festival. There was a Metis in Motion 5 km walk/run that we participated in. It was a great activity to tour the historic site!
Stay tuned for more pictures of the Batoche!
Thanks for tuning into our blog!
Max and Renee
Hey Guys!!
ReplyDeleteWell the Back to Batoche Festival was an amazing one. My name is Shawna Stevenson and I was one of the youth representatives sent to Batoche to promote the Ispayin DVD and Discussion guide. Since this was my first time in Batoche i'd have to give them an overall 9.5 out of ten. The only down fall was the fact that there was so many people but not enough food venders, and the fact that I froze my butt off at night was another downfall! But other than that Batoche was amazing. The Ispayin group had a booth set up and we all took turns promoting and giving away a variety of goodies the people really enjoyed. The thing that i really enjoyed the most about Batoche would have to be the fact that everyone was freely expressing themselves as a metis person, no one was shy to say who and where they were from, or even sharing stories and knowledge to others. It was great to just be yourself and learn so much amazing and interesting things about your culture, but not only from the elders i learned so much about our diverse population from how people express themselves through music and dance, to speaking and art. I'm so glad i had this amazing oppourtunity to go to Batoche and I hope that next year will be just as amazing because i'm hoping taking my entire family for the festival! Thanks so much N.A.H.O. you guys are amazing!!!
Thanks Alot Shawna Stevenson Youth Rep. The Pas, Manitoba!!!
Wish I could have come to Batoche! Am looking forward to attending the Metis Nation of Ontario AGA this week in Thunder Bay at Fort William Historical Park. Benny and I are doing a workshop to train MNO youth coordinators from across the province to become Ispayin youth facilitators so they can bring back the DVD and discussion guides and do workshops in their communities. Very exciting! Will let you know how it goes.
ReplyDelete-Ginny Gonneau