Not everyone celebrated with thousands of Saskatchewanians celebrating Canada’s 155th birthday on Friday..Chokecherry Studios hosted a Cancel Canada Day event at the Kiwanis Memorial Park in Saskatoon..Chokecherry is an indigenous group whose purpose on the day was to cancel Canada’s birthday to raise awareness about missing and murdered indigenous women, girls, two-spirit, and indigenous children who suffered in residential schools..“Cancel Canada Day is to bring the community together. Canada Day is celebrating genocide on land that basically tried to eradicate our indigenous people,” said Allison Forsberg, the Wapahki assistant co-ordinator with Chokecherry..“It’s unfortunate, I feel like people here don’t really understand the context as much. People that do celebrate Canada Day, they don’t recognize what they’re actually celebrating.”.“There’s not really a meaning behind it. They go, they drink, and they party …. and that’s kind of what it’s about.”.This is the second time that Chokecherry hosted the Cancel Canada Day event..However, Forsberg said the attendance this year was significantly less than the 4,000 who showed up for the first event..“All these people come here to have a sense of community and belonging. Being able to provide healing, a safe place to grieve for our ancestors and our family,” said Forsberg..“Trauma is very real and still with us, so it’s not your time to tell us how we’re supposed to heal.”.The event started with an elder saying a prayer and several indigenous leaders gave speeches..Next was a smudge walk, and an art installation, followed by a round dance..Forsberg complained about Canada Day fireworks going off while they had their event and it just shows the ignorance of most Canadians to indigenous issues..“A lot of the time people within Saskatoon are unaware. They don’t have to face the issues we do,” said Forsberg..With "fireworks going on at the same time. The contrast is going to be intense and a lot of people are going to feel the lack of empathy and understanding that indigenous people aren’t important, and they are going to continue celebrating.”.Forsberg said she hopes in the future that Canadians and indigenous people can celebrate together if Canadians acknowledge they are on stolen land..“Hopefully just a celebration for recognizing the land we’re on that does belong to indigenous people,” said Forsberg..“You can’t have reconciliation without truth and what we’re doing is trying to provide truth first. Hopefully, we can continue on for the next few years and people can have a sense of belonging.”
