FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Chāpān Games and Teachings on National Day of Truth and Reconciliation 
Join us at CN Stage and Skate Park at The Forks

September 30, 2024 – Treaty One Territory, Winnipeg, MB: The Hey Cuzzin’ community partners are pleased to announce the first-ever Chāpān Games and Teachings to be held September 30, 2024 – National Day of Truth and Reconciliation. The partners consist of Art City, Bear Clan Patrol, Crisis & Trauma Resource Institute, Festival du Voyageur, Jessie Home Inc., Pitikwe Skatepark, Manitoba League of Persons with Disabilities, Manitoba Moon Voices, Manitoba Aboriginal Sports and Recreation Council Inc., VIDEA, Vincent Design, Winnipeg Art Gallery, and Women’s Health Clinic.

Attending the event is to honour those young people who never returned home because of the erroneous government policies that removed them from their families and sent them to live elsewhere – all lost their culture and language, many died and were buried in unmarked graves. Attending the event is also to honor them and those who survived and suffered, many with debilitating effects that are still being felt today. The event focuses on healing through the medicine of laughter and having fun with traditional Indigenous games provided by the Manitoba Aboriginal Sports & Recreation Council (MASRC), and will feature stand-up comedy, storytelling, Chāpān teachings, food trucks, Sacred Fire, musicians and DJs, an appearance by Ojibwe Elvis, and more. 

The meaning behind the Cree word Chāpān refers to the traditional role of the elderly as well as youth in families, especially when everyone in the community left every summer to go hunting and fishing at the family camps. 

Granny Albert McLeod explains, “here, everyone had a role, everyone was busy – one of the Traditional roles of the Chāpāns was to take care of the young - sometimes they would lead the little ones, and sometimes the little ones would lead their Chāpāns. This was the cycle of life and a very special relationship.”

“This is very different from today,” Granny Louise McKay remarks. “Chāpān Games and Teachings is a time to remember and dream about what life was like before we all had to live apart from each other”.

We ask that attendees bring a pair of shoes to fit a child in kindergarten-grade 8.  The shoes will be displayed on September 30th and then donated to NIJI MAHKWA School. 

Chāpān Games and Teachings
September 30, 2024 | 11am – 9 pm
CN Stage and Skatepark, 1 Forks Market Road
Free

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