Vancouver’s Reconciliation Day Through Community Event

Two local siblings of Plains Cree descent are teaming up to show the true meaning of brotherly love and nourish the community in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside by hosting a second-annual Reconciliation Day Through Community event this Friday, September 29.

The event is organized by David Arnault, an Indigenous Cultural Wellness worker with Community Builders Group, which has offered affordable, safe and supportive housing, overdose outreach services and Indigenous cultural wellness and peer support employment programs for those in need across Greater Vancouver since 2001.

Arnault’s brother Darrel Ahenakew, head chef at Mount Pleasant gastro-lounge The Cascade Room, is rolling up his sleeves to provide the food for the event. It takes place at the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre Society gymnasium at 1607 East Hastings Street from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on the eve of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day, which honours Survivors of residential schools as well as those who never returned home.

The event will include a community smudge led by one of the Community Builders tenants, a land acknowledgement, addresses from three knowledge keepers and residential school survivors, an interactive hoop dance and hand drum and song presentations, a round dance and a huge communal feast to mark the occasion with a feast provided by Darrel that includes twists on traditional Indigenous recipes in dishes such as venison sliders on brioche, smoked salmon on bannock crostini, blueberry glazed pork skewers, a Three Sisters salad and more.

“This purpose of this event is to honour and celebrate the resilience of Indigenous peoples,” says David. “[The genesis of it] was to acknowledge the fact that there have been a lot of horrific things that have been done at residential schools and to teach people that there is an underlying problem with Indigenous people and substance use, but it is also for people to come and see how colourful and vibrant and passionate our people are. Historically, we welcomed people with open arms—people of any sort of belief — and shared what we knew, and that’s what we want to bring it back to.”

It’s not the first time that the brothers—who grew up together near Sandy Lake, on Treaty 6 territory in Northern Saskatchewan—have worked together to give back to the community at large. Since the spring, one of Darrel’s signature dishes at The Cascade Room—a Leek Ash-Rubbed Steelhead Trout served with a Three Sisters mash of roasted corn, grilled zucchini and cedar-braised white beans, charred leeks, sage and sunflower seed pesto, cranberry chutney and baked bannock—has been a staple on the menu, with restaurant ownership donating $5 from the sale of each dish directly to Community Builders. —JC Sorensen