THIS WEEKS FLYERS

Students come from the prairie provinces including Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, but talent and experience is gathered from all over the country. “I’m from Regina originally and grew up there. When I turned 18, I moved to Montreal and went to McGill University. I got my degrees there and ended up staying and teaching at McGill for 22 years, and this summer my family and I moved back to Saskatchewan,” explains Kennedy. “It started pre-pandemic. I was doing a lot of adjudicating, teaching at McGill, and teaching at a high school in Montreal too. So, word gets around, and they start bringing you around the circuit of Canadian festivals and they kept asking me back.”

Vanier’s new band and choir director David Selensky says he loves bringing his students because “it’s an educational

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This event is also made possible through the dedication of the volunteers, and they demonstrate the hospitality and sense of community that Moose Jaw can offer. Kreutzwieser chuckles when she explains the spirit of our volunteers: “Laundry doesn’t get done, cooking doesn’t get done… but my husband knows that I’m going to get involved in this program.”

“I just really hope we get to see the 100th and 150th, you know, that this tradition carries on,” says Kreutzwieser. “It’s so valuable for the students and for the community too.”

The festival continued through to Thursday, May 18.

Moose Jaw’s 71st annual Band & Choral Festival was notoriously successful

As the 71st annual Band & Choral Festival draws to a close this week, local businesses show gratitude for the impact on the local economy and thanks to all who were involved, the event was a success

Moose Jaw, the Notorious City previously known as the Band City, sees the successful completion of the 71st annual Band & Choral Festival this past week.

Held between Monday, May 15 and Thursday, May 18, the event drew in large crowds and thousands of tourists and students from across the prairie provinces.

More than an educational festival dedicated to improving the musical performance of students from across the prairie provinces, the festival also brought with it entertainment and local talent for everyone in the community.

Each year that it’s held, the Band & Choral Festival also brings with it a positive impact on small local business.

One local business affected by the Band & Choral Festival is Past Times Old Time Photography & Gifts, located at 26 Main St. N. The owner of Past Times, Mike Thul, explains the positive impact

Aaron Walker - Moose Jaw Express/MooseJawToday.com on his business to offer one example felt by the whole community.

“We’re gifts galore, from ceiling to floor,” states Thul, speaking of Past Times. Their selection of inventory draws many shoppers, most notably tourists. Although he states that the business does not rely on tourism, the impact is heavily felt.

“Lots of band and choral festival members [were] in the store, as we carry lots of candies and lots of everything else. Lots are buying the chocolate moose fudge,” Thul states, along with “all the candies we’ve got.”

Thul confirms the additional influx of tourists, as they’ve made comments in his guest book. He sees a lot of commentary along the lines of: “wow, this is the best store ever,” a comment which extends to the community at large.

The excitement felt by his visitors and those who signed the guest book continues the legacy surrounding the festival, which originated in 1949.

“As a kid, I remember the band festival… we had the biggest marching parade in North America,” explains Thul, as he reminisces on past Band & Choral Festival events. This tradition, back from when Moose Jaw was known as the Band City, would have seen such a parade tomorrow, on Saturday.

Even though the parade is no longer included in the festival, Janie Fries, organizer of the Band & Choral Festival, mentions in a press release that an acknowledgement for all the hard work, effort, and dedication to those who are responsible for making the event a success is well deserved and should be the focus as the event draws to a close.

This acknowledgement extends to the Band & Choral Festival committee, who have put in thousands of hours of time and effort to make the event a success and impact our local economy, all the while providing this opportunity for thousands of young musicians across the prairies.

An acknowledgement and word of thanks is also extended to all those young musicians, their program directors, adjudicators, performers, and volunteers who have all come together to make the event a great success.

Recognition and gratitude is also extended to other local businesses who financially support the festival, including the Burger Cabin, Folgizan Agencies, and Halstead Dental among others.

The Moose Jaw community can look forward to next year’s scheduled Band & Choral Festival, which is scheduled to take place May 13-16, 2024.

Winnipeg students in town for choral festival hear

Métis teachings at library

Gordon Edgar - Moose Jaw Express/MooseJawToday.com

Members of New Southern Plains Métis (NSPM) Local #160, Moose Jaw’s Métis organization, organized Métis teaching workshops at the Moose Jaw Public Library on May 17 for students visiting from Winnipeg for the Band & Choral Festival.

The 75 students were from École Seven Oaks Middle School. The Battle of Seven Oaks was one of the defining events in Métis history, and the school places a strong emphasis on Indigenous knowledge.

“Our school division is very vocal about the importance of Indigenous education,” said Katy Abraham. Abraham is a music educator at Seven Oaks Middle School and accompanied students on the trip. “Lots of teachings are shared in their daily classroom experiences, so getting to know others and getting to know the communities that we travel to is important to us. As often as we can, we try and incorporate Indigenous teachings in our trips.”

Darrell Hawman, president of the NSPM, arranged 20-minute workshops at the Moose Jaw Public Library (MJPL) which included elements of the Michif language taught by Al Chaisson, Métis history and storytelling by Hawman, and a Red River cart activity by Rick Pickering.

Chaisson is a member of the New Southern Plains Métis chapter and a Michif language instructor. His first language is French, which made learning Michif easy, he said.

“This is a lost language,” Chaisson explained, “and I want to revitalize it so that everybody speaks it. There’s only about 685 people in Canada who speak it right now. I want to encourage them to learn, as young as they are, because if you don’t, you’re missing the culture. You’re missing a lot of things, if you don’t know the language.”

Many of the Seven Oaks students are in French immersion and were pleased with how much they understood.

“I got to go around with the groups to the three stations that were set up and it was really interesting to see, with so many of our students understanding French, how close Michif is to French and how much we were able to understand, even though it’s a different language,” said Elizabeth LaRue, a teacher at Seven Oaks.

“That was really neat, and we were able to learn about the Red River carts and how they were made, and the students got to touch it and play with it. … To actually meet someone of that culture and speaking that language, I think meant something more than just reading it in a book.”

“We’re trying to educate people and bring up the general awareness of Métis culture, for everyone,” Hawman said before the students arrived. “The story that hasn’t been told is a couple hundred years older than Confederation. It started in about 1670 and continues today. And that’s the story we’ll cover, and how we came about and developed as a people.

“Through the different areas of the fur trade, and the buffalo hunt, the transi- tion to colonialism, and how we’re affected today.”

As president of NSPM, Hawman has led the way over the last few years to signing Memorandums of Understanding with Saskatchewan Polytechnic, Prairie South School Division, and Holy Trinity Catholic School Division. The MOUs promise communication and co-operation on Truth and Reconciliation efforts and Indigenous teachings at the educational institutions.

Some useful Michif phrases include:

Taanshi = Hello

Taanshi keeya = How are you?

Kiiya maaka = How about you?

Boon matayn = Good morning

Boon apray mijii = Good afternoon

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