Downtown Eastside celebrates Indigenous Peoples Day

The heart of the Downtown Eastside was beating with joy and passion Saturday as the neighbourhood held an event celebrating Indigenous people in Canada.

Michelle Bryant-Gravelle, senior director of Indigenous Relations at the City of Vancouver, says it was important to have the event in the Downtown Eastside.

“We have a large population of Indigenous people who live here. They’re not the majority, but there’s a large portion,” Gravelle said.

“But also, there’s a negative stigma here in the Downtown Eastside that gets portrayed way too often. But what doesn’t get portrayed is the sense of community people have here. People take care of each other here in the Downtown Eastside.”

Saturday’s celebration of Indigenous culture and heritage stood in the shadow of legislation passed on Friday at the House of Commons — laws that would in part fast-track major infrastructure projects across the country. B.C. has also recently passed similar laws, and the concern here is that both levels of government will use these laws to steamroll Indigenous rights.

“I look at these community gatherings as a part of us reconnecting not only with each other, but reaffirming our rights, and reaffirming our ability to assemble and gather and celebrate our culture,” said Haida artist and director Tamara Bell.

Artists have long pointed the brush at the powers that be, and Bell says Indigenous people and Canadians both end up worse because of the new federal legislation, also known as Bill C-5.

The Liberals passed Bill C-5 in the House of Commons with support from the Conservatives, giving the government sweeping powers to approve major projects deemed to be in the national interest.

“Basically, it makes Canadians bystanders like Indigenous people have been for a really long time in this country, and what it does is puts them in the position of not having a voice when it comes to legislation or rules and laws around the environment,” she said.

In B.C., the government passed a similar bill, the Infrastructure Projects Act, which also allows for fast-tracking major projects seen as “provincially significant.”

“I feel like this legislation, the dark cloud of it hangs over all Indigenous people in Canada,” Bell said.

“And I feel like it’s going to not only dampen the work that we’ve been doing for hundreds of years, it’s taking away the voice of all Canadians and Indigenous peoples.”

Despite the legal battles that lawyers suggest may come because of these new laws, it was all about feelings of joy in the Downtown Eastside Saturday. Like the beating of a drum, National Indigenous Peoples Day celebrates the strength and resolve to face what comes next.