Four tipis stood behind Joely BigEagle-Kequahtooway as a handful of men started to erect another.
Nearby, children milled about, recreating paintings of buffalo along Dewdney Ave.
At a table, storytellers shared tales as music echoed in the background.
It was all taking place at Buffalo Meadows Park, a space recently renamed from Dewdney Pool Park, whose namesake Edgar Dewdney played a part in the residential school system.
“It is about celebrating the land and the community,” BigEagle-Kequahtooway said of the Buffalo Day festivities taking place around her. “And celebrating the children and honouring the children and residential school survivors. But we also need to celebrate the children up and coming.”
BigEagle-Kequahtooway calls the community of North Central home and said the event is also about creating safe spaces in a core neighbourhood often viewed with trepidation in Regina.
Buffalo play a key part in Indigenous culture, and its prominence at the event carried several meanings.
“The buffalo were deliberately killed off to make way for settlement and to kill off the Indian,” she said. “But today is about celebrating how we survived. Those were difficult times and not to say every settler was involved in that but you need to know it is a part of Canada’s history.”
The buffalo also played a part in a small act of social justice art action.
While the park was renamed, its abutting street continues to bear the title of Dewdney. Many, including BigEagle-Kequahtooway, want it renamed Buffalo Ave. or something more indicative of the area’s history.
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