The Calgary community of Lake Bonavista is hoping its residents will come together to learn more about Indigenous relations and their part in reconciliation this weekend.
Renee Price got the idea after witnessing some incidents of racism in her neighbourhood.
It started out as just being an event held on her street but quickly grew to include the whole community.
“I think really everyone wants to have those positive relationships with the Indigenous community. But what we’re hearing from non-Indigenous people is, ‘We don’t really know how — we don’t know how to plug in,'” Price said.
“‘We don’t know how to support or where to support.'”
Organizers have invited elders and members from Tsuut’ina and other Treaty Seven First Nations to be a part of the weekend’s events, which will include a pipe ceremony, powwows, dancing, sports and storytelling.
Tipis will be set up in the community soccer fields, which people can explore, and it’s hoped residents and those visiting will connect through that and sports events like kickball, dodgeball and other games.
There will also be a memory walk on Sunday to honour the children whose remains have been found at the sites of former residential schools across the country.
“I think it’s a great step for us to start conversations,” Price said.
“We have lots of events happening, but the idea here this weekend is to build relationships, to spend time getting to know each other, to create friends that weren’t previously friends.
“That’s the grassroots approach: relationship building and creating that alliance between our communities… When you have understanding, that racism ceases to exist.”