National Indigenous Peoples Day 2024
National Indigenous Peoples Day coincides with the summer solstice. It is the longest day of the year and a chance to celebrate the good land where the Creator has placed us. It is a day to remember and honour the gifts Indigenous people are as we try and live into being stewards of the land which carries all of us.
Indigenous people continue to call us to seek to live in harmony with one another, creation, and with Creator. To this end, most of Canada entered into a Treaty with Indigenous people; we agreed to live like relatives. To recognize that each of us needs everyone else.
None of us are sufficient in ourselves. We all have something to offer, and we all are in need of something. The gift that Indigenous people bring to Canada is a call to reconcile, to seek to bring harmony in all our relationships by sharing our hearts with one another.
During this longest day of the year, sit together and dream of what it would be like to love with all our hearts.
Dream of what it would be like if we could heal the pain and discord that exists in our world.
Dream what it would be like to leave a world better for our grandchildren than the one we inherited.
Dream for ourselves and for our children and grandchildren, and then take time to pray for one another and for our land.
We need one another to achieve something we could not do by ourselves.
National Indigenous Peoples Day is a celebration of Indigenous people and all their relationships, which includes all of us.
Take time to come together and we will change the world.
—Rev. Dr. Ray Aldred
Indigenous Studies Program Director