Mountain View Moccasin House Society opened its Indigenous Lending Library to the public on Tuesday morning (June 18th).
The Indigenous Lending Library is made up of over one hundred books that have been donated to the society by some community members. Debbie Collins, Past Chair of Mountain View Moccasin House Society, says they are open to donations of this kind.
She notes the book shelf is in the waiting room at the Community Connections Centre at 4911 – 51st Avenue in Olds. Collins says “They’re fiction, works of fiction written by Indigenous authors and then on a series of non-fiction topics like cultural practices and history, historic figures, different nations, Truth and Reconciliation strategies and kind of what happened in our shared Canadian history. Lots of topics like that and a few children’s books and that’s an area we are hoping to do some building of over the next few weeks.”
According to Collins, the books from the Indigenous Lending Library – on a variety of topics – can be taken out by community members for a couple weeks or three on the honour system. There will be a sign out booklet near the shelves.
Collins points out that on Thursday and Friday, students in Kindergarten and Grade 1 will be going through the teepee behind the Olds Municipal Library having a story walk and having some bannock and jam to eat. She says “The Kiwanis (Club of Olds) have graciously donated dollars for us to purchase children’s books for the kids that go through the teepee. They have a focus on literacy and making sure that we have young readers that are happy to be reading. So our books are written and illustrated by Indigenous folks and we gift those to the kids. We’ve done that the last couple of years with the Kiwanis support. It’s been great.”
Also as part of National Indigenous People’s Week in Olds, she adds Clare Butterfly – a Cree man from Sylvan Lake – will raise the tepee during a public event behind the Olds Library at 9am. She says “We’ll be doing some more things in September around Alberta Culture month and just at that time it’s time to really remember the residential school survivors but in June for National Indigenous People’s Day, we celebrate.”
Elder John Sinclair will hold a Pipe Ceremony to mark National Indigenous People’s Day in the tepee behind the Olds Municipal Library at 9am on Friday (June 21st). Everyone is welcome to attend.
Collins explains a bit about Mountain View Moccasin House. She says “We started meeting just before COVID so, of course, we were kind of slow to get going but we managed to stay a float through that by using ZOOM meetings. We are a group of Indigenous and not Indigenous people who live in the County (Mountain View County) and all around the County. Different parts of it. We recognized there wasn’t any place really where Indigenous people and non-Indigenous people were gathering to be together and be in relationship in a public way. We know that happens all the time in people’s private lives. We started and became a society right away in 2020. What we aim to do is raise the level of Indigenous cultural awareness in our community. So that those who aren’t Indigenous and those who weren’t raised in their culture can learn if they want about the practices, the wonderful creative, colourful, intelligent way of life that Indigenous people lived. Also about our shared Canadian history. It’s our hope, and it is what we do, to develop relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. To learn about each other’s wonderful parts, I guess, and embrace how we are unique, all of us from all cultures that live here in our community.”
