Pictured above: Photo contest submission by Kacey Young, age 16
Nearly 140 Indigenous youth in Manitoba shared their talents online as part of a virtual festival honouring their artistic gifts – earning them both praise and prizes.
Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Inc. (MKO) held the Honouring the Gifts: MKO Youth Cultural Celebration from June 21-25, inviting youth age 12-17 to post submissions in five categories – song, dance, contemporary fine arts, photography/videography or beadwork/regalia making – on a Facebook page for the festival. Fifty youth won an Apple iPhone 12 Pro or an iPad Air tablet to help them further cultivate their talents and create future content, while every non-placing entry was awarded a $50 Northern store gift card to acknowledge their efforts.
Pictured above: Drawing contest submissions by Carleen Martin (left) and Chloe Linklater, ages 13 and 16 respectively
The North West Company was pleased to sponsor the event with a contribution of $38,000. As part of the sponsorship, North West contributed towards prizes and supported the dance competition by joining the judges panel. All of the youth who participated, from across MKO’s 26 unique First Nation constituents, received a prize.
Grand Chief Garrison Settee shared in a video posted on MKO’s Facebook and YouTube platforms, explaining how he was inspired to hold the celebration after his brother, Bernie Spence, told Grand Chief Settee about a dream he had where a young person called out to them, saying, “You forgot about us.”
“We wanted to take this time to empower our youth in our North. I know the pandemic has been hard on everybody, especially our young people,” Grand Chief Settee shared in another video. “We wanted to encourage our youth to manifest and express their gifts so that we can receive healing from that, and receive encouragement from those gifts, because our youth are very powerful and we wanted to take the time to ensure we have an opportunity to hear from them and see what they can do.”
Pictured above: Beadwork contest submission by Neepin Cook (left) and Neanna Lundie, ages 17 and 16 respectively
Grand Chief Settee thanked The North West Company for its participation and sponsorship which helped make the event possible.