It’s a year of celebration for the Métis Nation of Alberta (MNA) as they prepare for the upcoming 84th Annual General Assembly (AGA), hosted by both the Town of Athabasca and Athabasca County, from Aug. 16-19.
The theme of this year’s AGA is Our Culture – Our Language. Every year the AGA rotates among the six regions of the MNA, and this year the AGA is being put on in partnership with Region 1, the Town of Athabasca, Athabasca County and Travel Alberta, according to Athabasca Landing Métis Local 2010 president Darryl Shott.
Shott said in a previous interview that he thought the opportunity to host the AGA was exciting and provided the Métis Nation, the Town and the County the chance to develop positive working relationships together.
“The opportunity to host the [AGA] is a significant stride for Métis People in the Athabasca region to take an active role within our culturally vibrant community, to participate and to become involved,” Shott said. “We certainly have much respect for both leaders of the County and Town and their respective board members, and we look forward to continued collaboration. The AGA will infuse a lot into the town and the community as a whole.”
The collaboration among all parties has helped to lay the groundwork for a weekend of fun-filled events, starting with a day-long golf tournament held at the Athabasca Golf & Country Club on Thursday. The tournament is being hosted by the MNA Local 1949 from the Owl River area and will get underway with registration starting at 8:30 a.m., said Region 1 Vice President Diane Scoville.
Scoville said following the day of fun on the golf course, there will be a meet-and-greet at the Athabasca Regional Multiplex starting at 7:30 p.m., including an open bar, a barbeque, and other foods as well. All of the food is free of charge and open to anybody who came in for the Thursday events and the remainder of the weekend.
The big events get started with a free pancake breakfast on Friday morning at the multiplex at 7 a.m. Once people get nice and full, a trade show and affiliate presentations will start in the fieldhouse of the multiplex starting at 9 a.m. and will run until about 4:30 p.m., said Scoville.
“The trade show will have everything from industry representatives, Métis small businesses, to the Métis Urban Housing Corporation and the Apeetogosan (Métis) Development Corporation,” Scoville said. “All the information that a Métis could need about almost anything will be there. There will also be local vendors and artisans selling their crafts and beadwork.”
Scoville said throughout the day there will also be an Elders’ lounge upstairs at the multiplex where the Brick has donated lounge furniture for them to use. The Elders’ lounge will have access to everything including lunch service, so that they don’t have to go far for what they need.
The lounge is located in the common area near where the Youth Conference is taking place, so everyone can interact with each other.
“We basically want to cater to our elders and show them respect by providing everything they need in a convenient location,” Scoville said. “They will also have the opportunity to interact with the youth and make Métis crafts with them. We want to encourage the elders to share their knowledge with youth and help share the culture.”
As for the Youth Conference taking place alongside the AGA on Friday, this year’s theme is Our Voice, Our Choice. The keynote speaker is Nathaniel Arcand, who will be talking about his career path as an actor through ‘Dreaming Through the Lens’, and the steps he took to get where he is today to help his dream continue. His presentation starts at 10 a.m. and runs until noon when lunch will be served to all participants of the AGA.
Throughout the afternoon on Friday, there will also be also be Wood Buffalo Wilderness Riverboat Tours down by the riverfront starting at 2 p.m. and will run till 7 p.m., just before the talent show starts. Métis and local talent will be hitting the riverfront stage around 7 -7:30 p.m. and Scoville said anyone of any age and any talent is welcome to perform.
“We welcome anyone who wants to come out and show off their talent to hit the stage during the riverfront jamboree and talent show,” she said.
Although all events on Friday are free, including breakfast and lunch, Scoville said dinner on Friday will be served via four or five vendors down at the riverfront during the talent show.
Saturday will run similarly to the previous day, starting at 7 a .m. with another pancake breakfast at the multiplex. Throughout the day the trade show and riverboat tours will be happening as well as another Elders’ lounge.
The Youth Conference will feature James Jones from So You Think You Can Dance Canada and Lindsay Willier from Canada’s Next Top Model, who will be discussing ‘Dreams in Motion’ as the co-keynotes for the day.
It’s not all fun and games on Saturday, however, as members of the MNA will get down to business with their annual general meeting, where they will discuss events from over the course of the year as well as cast votes on special resolutions, Scoville said. The meeting starts at 9 a.m. at the multiplex and will run until about 6 p.m.
She noted that only MNA official members can cast votes, but anyone is welcome to attend the meetings and listen to what is discussed. She expects a fair amount of people to attend the meeting.
“I can’t say exactly how many people will be there but I do know that all the hotel rooms in the area are completely booked up,” Scoville said. “There are between 85,000 and 90,000 members of the MNA and we aren’t expecting that much, but if we get 600 or even 1,000 people out to the AGA and the meeting, we’ll be doing good.”
Following the meeting and trade show on Saturday, there will be a banquet and a dance at the multiplex starting at 6 p.m. During the banquet, Scoville said, there will be 13 veterans honoured as well as one member from each of the six regions. Scoville said there will also be a 50/50 draw during the banquet and all the money will be going back into Region 1, and hopefully to the volunteers.
“Usually we like to honour someone who has attended all the other assemblies and been involved with most, if not all the events happening in their area,” Scoville said. “We want to honour someone (who) is an upstanding citizen with random acts of kindness and cultural wisdom.
“We also want to honour all the volunteers who have helped out with the AGA, so whatever money we raise from the 50/50 draw I would like to see go back into doing something nice for all the people who helped make this possible. It takes a lot of solid people (to) help bring together an event of this magnitude.”
After the dinner service is done, the talent show from Friday night will carry over if there are any more performers, and around 9:30 p.m.the band Desjarlais & Co. will be hitting the stage for an evening of dancing.
The next day, if the MNA business meeting was not concluded on Saturday, it will continue on Sunday morning at the multiplex starting at 9 a.m. Sunday also rounds things off with a roughstock rodeo at the Agriculture Society Agriplex starting at 7:30 a.m. with a breakfast and registration. There will be a cowboy church services and gospel shortly thereafter, and the rodeo events, such as bareback riding and barrel races, will start at 1 p.m.
Scoville said she expects the whole weekend to be a good time for all.
“I expect a lot of people to be coming out to this because we’ve been getting a lot of calls about all the events,” Scoville said. “I know it’s going to be a huge success and we couldn’t have done it without all our volunteers and our major sponsors – the MNA, Syncrude, and TransCanada – because without them, none of this would be possible and it wouldn’t be as successful and I know it’s going to be.”
For more information and general inquiries, call the MNA Region 1 office at 780-623-3039. For questions relating to the business meeting, call the MNA Head Office at 780-455-2200 ext. 281. For inquiries about the rodeo, call Joe Blyan at 780-689-2253 or 780-222-4746.
