Under beautiful skies, Fort Chip’s 2021 Dene Days drew an energetic crowd on August 25th and 26th. The event celebrated Indigenous pride with traditional activities including drumming, beading, cooking bannock and drying fish.
Leaders from all three nations were present and joyfully joined in. The two-day Hand Games Tournament attracting large crowds of onlookers and competitors. Other big crowd generators included bingo, boat rides and the generous door prizes for adults and children.
Clayton Stafford and Nick Kendrick from Greenplanet Energy Analytics hosted live demos that focused on ACFN’s Sustainable Energy and Sustainable Food Production projects. This included a fully functional model of solar PV panels with batteries that were used to charge laptops and attendees’ cell phones. This provided a great opportunity to talk to people about ACFN’s Cabin Solar Program and the renewable energy investments in southern Alberta. The sustainable food demo included a “sprouts in a jar” kit that Nick had started to grow, as well hand-outs about raised bed gardening and local edible plants.
The display also had sign-ups for two door prizes. Mona Piche won a solar battery charging pack, used to charge cell phones and tablets. Roxanne Marcel won the “sprouts in a jar” kit that will equip her to grow her own sprouts such as alfalfa in just five days, just by adding water!
