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CKMS News -2025-06-18- Sunrise ceremony and “Land Back Camp” celebration to kick off the Multicultural Festival on Indigenous Peoples Day

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CKMS News -2025-06-18- Sunrise ceremony and “Land Back Camp” celebration to kick on the Multicultural Festival on Indigenous Peoples Day

dan kellar
Kitchener, ON – Ahead of the Sunrise Ceremony and celebration for the 5 year anniversary of Land Back Camp on June 21st, CKMS News spoke with Bangishimo, an organizer of the event and an Indigenous advocate in the region.  June 21st is also National Indigenous People’s Day and the summer solstice.

Bangishimo told CKMS News that the Sunrise ceremony will run from 7am to around 9am in the courtyard at the Willow River Centre in downtown Kitchener.  For the first time the ceremony is being held in partnership with the multicultural festival which runs over the weekend in Willow River Park.

The Sunrise ceremony will feature a ceremonial fire, drumming and song, and words from youth activist Skye Smoke, and advocate, educator, and Residential School Survivor Lila Bruyere.

Bangishimo, a coordinator at the Willow River Centre also discusses the impact that “Land Back Camp” has had locally in the five years following land reclamation action.

CKMS Community News, Newsroom

Kitchener’s Willow River Centre celebrates National Indigenous Month and calls for more substantial action

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The Willow River Centre in Kitchener is advocating for more meaningful support for Indigenous people and culture instead of what they characterize as routine performative gestures from municipalities and organizations.

The Center, which serves Indigenous, racialized, Two Spirit, and LGBTQ youth, is hosting Summer Solstice Saturday on June 22nd to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Month. The Willow River Centre co-directors Amy Smoke and Bangishimo said that their past efforts on the day have often resulted in overwork and stress.

“It’s been so many years now since the TRC calls to actions came out and still to this day for a lot of organizations and spaces, we’re still considering an afterthought where, where we get emails like the week of before June and these organizations and corporations are looking for somebody to sing and dance for them,” Bangishimo told CKMS News.

The Summer Solstice Saturday will be held on Saturday, June 22nd at the Kitchener Farmer’s Market from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m.