On 13 June 1996, Governor General Roméo LeBlanc announced the government’s intention to have an annual, national celebration of Indigenous peoples. Later that month, on the 21st, Canada celebrated its first National Aboriginal Day.

National Indigenous Peoples Day or past National Aboriginal Day, 21 June, is an official day of celebration to recognize and honor the achievements, history and rich cultures of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples in Canada. This day has been celebrated as a statutory territorial holiday in the Northwest Territories since 2001 and in the Yukon since 2017.

On 21 June 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced plans to change the name of National Aboriginal Day to National Indigenous Peoples Day, reflecting a national and international preference for the term Indigenous, rather than Aboriginal, in most cases.

Trent University’s First Peoples House of Learning, the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women, and the National Film Board of Canada, this virtual Indigenous Women’s Circle will honor Indigenous women activists, chiefs, and storytellers.

This special 2-hour event coincides with the National Aboriginal Day/National Indigenous Peoples Day.

Guest speakers will highlight their personal journeys as activists and chiefs. We will be joined by distinguished guests—Courtney Montour, Kanien’keha:ka filmmaker, The Honourable Lillian Dyck, retired Senator and member of the Cree Gordon First Nation, Chief Emily Whetung, lawyer and chief of Curve Lake First Nation, Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, founding member of the Ontario Native Women’s Association and member of the Wiikwemkoong First Nation, and Pamela Palmater, Mi’kmaq lawyer, professor, and Sharon McIvor, Member of the Lower Nicola Band, Indigenous women’s rights activist, and co-chair of the Feminist Alliance for International Action.

The discussion will be moderated by Dawn Lavell-Harvard, a member of the Wiikwemkoong First Nation and Director at the First Peoples House of Learning at Trent University.

Join us live on Zoom Monday, June 20, 2022 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.