Wednesday marks the second anniversary of the Idle No More movement’s first day of action and activists are gathering in Saskatoon tonight for a special event.
The Idle No More: Poetry Slams, Revolutionary Acts event takes place at Station 20 West beginning at 6:30 p.m.
The event features a number of performers including Lindsay Eekwol Knight, Magik Radix and Jorgina Sunn Music.
Idle No More founder Sylvia McAdam says the event offers an opportunity for young people to express themselves.
“We found from Idle No More over the past two years that the voice of grassroots people is creative and powerful and it’s not necessarily a political voice,” she says. “The voice of the young people through drum, through song, through dance.”
The Assembly of First Nations leadership election also takes place today but some are questioning the relevance of this organization, saying Indigenous activists should instead focus their attention on social movements like Idle No More if they want to see real change.
McAdam says the AFN still has a role to play but it needs to reach out to the grassroots.
“The challenge for these organizations is bridging that disconnect that they have with grassroots people and that disconnect can’t be more evident than when you look at the AFN agenda. They’re not even raising the issue of the land claims policy.”
At the AFN gathering, Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Derek Nepinak urged Idle No More to take to the streets again to speak out against the federal government’s First Nations Financial Transparency Act.
McAdam says she agrees.
The Idle No More movement was originally formed in the fall of 2012 in response to the Harper government’s Bill C-45.