A drumbeat anchors a crowd of students on a windy day and students, dressed in colourful regalia, dance before hundreds of their peers. For the Indigenous students of Gatineau’s Philemon Wright High School, this wasn’t just a performance — it was a reclamation of the school grounds.
For Kaylee Otter, from the Cree Nation of Wemindji, the afternoon was more than a land acknowledgement. It was a chance to see Indigenous culture represented in a place where those students rarely see their identities reflected.
“My great-grandma went to the school. I think she’d think of this [as an] opportunity for me to express our culture and our way of life,” said Otter.
The festival was born in Bear Lodge, a dedicated classroom serving as a cultural hub for the school’s Algonquin, Eeyou (Cree), and Inuit students.