On June 20 and 21, 2017, National Indigenous Peoples Day was celebrated in an entirely new way: as part of the first Gatineau Intercultural Festival, organized by the Centre intercultural de Gatineau in collaboration with Accueil Parrainage Outaouais (APO), the City of Gatineau and the First Peoples Innovation Centre (FPIC).
The FPIC also put together the second edition of Gatin-O-Aki: Rapprochement Between Peoples, which took place over the course of two days. The first day, in the Aylmer sector, was on Saturday, August 19, 2017, at Parc de L’Imaginaire in collaboration with Centre d’exposition L’Imagier.
The second day of Gatin-O-Aki took place on Tuesday, September 26, 2017, in collaboration with the host, Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO), as well as with Amicale autochtone de l’UQO (AA-UQO) and the Centre interuniversitaire d’études et de recherches autochtones (CIÉRA). The activity stations for this Gatin-O-Aki were located in the main hall and Espace Robert-Renaud of UQO’s Alexandre-Taché pavilion.
The FPIC also provided an Indigenous presence at the Wonders of Sand festival, which was held from July 6 to 9, 2017, at Lac-Beauchamp Park in the Gatineau sector. This included a smudging ceremony with Tina Vincent, entertainment and games, a jingle dance with Makhana Guérin, a dream catcher-making workshop with Catching Wisdom (a social economy enterprise founded by Indigenous youth) and traditional drumming and songs with the Eagle River Group.
The FPIC also participated in Gatineau’s day celebrating cultural diversity, which took place on August 13, 2017, at Moussette Park in the Hull sector. The FPIC ensured that an Elder was present for the Indigenous blessing ceremony, set up a tipi and helped with the sale of dream catchers made by Indigenous youth with a social economy enterprise.