June 21st not only marks the beginning of the Summer Solstice but it also means today is National Aboriginal Day in Canada.
Some 15 years ago Governor General Romeo LeBlanc declared June 21st as National Aboriginal Day to honor and celebrate Canada’s Indians, Inuit and Métis. That particular day was chosen because of the cultural significance of the summer solstice in aboriginal cultures. National Aboriginal Day has become a day for all Canadians to celebrate the cultures and contributions to Canada of First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples and aims to bring about awareness to the rest of Canadian society, in all aspects of art, music, oral history and traditional games.
In celebration of National Aboriginal Day, you can find numerous Aboriginal-related items including historical and current UBC theses and dissertations in cIRcle, UBC’s Digital Repository! See below for more details.
Did You Know?
Currently, there are about 1,980 Aboriginal-related items in cIRcle. To find them, go to the Advanced Search screen in cIRcle and type ‘Aboriginal’ into the ‘Search for’ box.
Above excerpt in italics and image are courtesy of the Summer Solstice / National Aboriginal Day webpage