Aboriginal arts, culture and multi-media festival announced

Thunder Bay is looking for the recently announced Animkii Festival to be a major attraction for people from across North America.
“The Animkii Festival will bring people from all over North America to celebrate Aboriginal arts, culture and multi-media,” said Anna Gibbon, Aboriginal liaison for the City of Thunder Bay. “It’s a tremendous opportunity for the city. Not only has this event been expanded to four days, but the community is now taking it over and will be organizing the event completely.”
Now organized by the Thunder Bay Aboriginal Arts and Heritage Group, the event will be held Oct. 13-16 at the Coliseum Building on Thunder Bay’s CLE grounds. The group has a vision to expand the event into a major cultural event for the City of Thunder Bay.
“This is truly a success story,” Gibbon said. “The Aboriginal community has always contributed to the economic, social, spiritual and cultural well-being of our community. The Animkii Festival is just another way in which the Aboriginal community is helping Thunder Bay to grow while showcasing our community to the world.”
David Wilkinson-Simard, communication coordinator for the Animkii Festival, is expecting people to come from all over North America to participate in the arts and cultural activities.
“It’s an opportunity for our traditional crafters to showcase what they have to offer,” Wilkinson-Simard said. “Our competition powwow (will) showcase what First Nations singers and dancers have to offer to the area and to highlight their accomplishments.”
Wilkinson-Simard said singers and dancers from across the region and as far away as Saskatchewan and Minnesota are looking forward to the opportunity to share their singing and dancing skills at the competition powwow.
The Animkii Festival will include an arts and crafts market, workshops for crafters and artists, fashion arts workshops, fashion and stage photography workshops, multi-arts workshops, entertainment workshops, a fashion models, designers and musicians meet and greet, an evening fashion show and concert, a community feast, a community traditional gathering, a festival of community services and an information market, cultural workshops and a powwow dance contest and singing contest.