Aboriginal Day plans under way

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Mark June 21 on your calendar and get ready to explore a great sampling of Aboriginal culture.

National Aboriginal Day is a commemorative day set aside to showcase and highlight aspects of Aboriginal life and custom.

This year, the special day falls on a Saturday, so organizers have decided to make it a two day event. Events and displays will be up and ready on Friday, June 20. Several groups and organizations have a long list of events planned for both days.

Indian Affairs will transform Edmonton's Canada Place office building into three floors of culture through Friday's lunch hour. Dancers, drummers, and singers will follow a grand entry into the office block starting at 11:30 a.m. Dancers will swirl and jingle to the drum beat and singers will entertain the audience for 90 minutes. Upstairs there will be Aboriginal displays and crafts for sale.

A royal proclamation signed by Queen Elizabeth announcing the special day will also be on display.

Events in Edmonton on Saturday have been planned by a large committee for the past two months.

The Aboriginal Day Committee is made up of more than a dozen directors representing friendship centres, Aboriginal education, seniors' centres, Indian Affairs, the Feather of Hope AIDS awareness organization, and Aboriginal business women, just to name a few.

Jane Woodward, the co-ordinator at the Aboriginal Education Centre at Edmonton's Grant MacEwan Community College, is the chairperson of the committee.

She is just as excited about the volunteer spirit as she is about the events themselves.

"This entire thing is totally voluntary," she said.

There are about 20 different groups and organizations volunteering their time and manpower to host events and displays, she said.

The number of people volunteering to help has been staggering. So staggering that it's hard to keep an accurate count.

"I have no idea how many people are involved, because they just keep calling to say they will volunteer," she said. "I'm amazed and so impressed with these people who have come together and said, 'Yes, let's do this.'"

That volunteer spirit and the desire to help is also a big part of this year's theme for National Aboriginal Day.

Celebrating our Nations is the slogan behind the day. Events for Saturday begin at noon and take place throughout the city.