• Price Free

With celebrations and open invitations for reflection and healing, Indigenous culture takes the spotlight for Aboriginal Awareness Week. There’s even free events at Sled Island to hit up. Here’s what we’re checking out:

Suncor Energy Stage One Festival

Until June 24, 2017
Lunchbox Theatre (160, 115 9 Ave. SE)
Free

See a series of staged readings and new works at this 30th annual offering from Lunchbox Theatre. Works include Trevor Schmidt’s Manband, Meredith Taylor-Parry’s Book Club II: The Next Chapter, and Jennifer Wynne Webber’s With Glowing Hearts.
lunchboxtheatre.com

Show Off! 2017

Until June 24, 2017
Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta College of Art + Design (1407 14th Ave. NW)
Free

A juried art and design competition for high school students living in Alberta, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, check out the best at this annual exhibition. The contest challenges young creatives to experience what it is like to be an exhibiting artist, and offers them the chance to win some spectacular prizes including tuition at ACAD.
acad.ca

ProArts@Noon Presents Jansen Sisters

June 21, 2017, 12:10 – 12:50pm
Cathedral Church of the Redeemer (604 1st St. SE)
Free

Featuring acoustic covers and originals, the JansenSisters boast tight harmonies and incorporate a variety of instruments. Cassidy, Micah, and Alixx began singing in elementary school as a means to make money for a trip to Disneyland and now they perform at markets, festivals, and community centres.
proartssociety.ca

Campfire Chats

June 21, 2017, 6:30 – 8:30pm
St. Patrick’s Island (1300 Zoo Road NE)
Free

Join the University of Calgary and the Calgary Stampede for the second annual Campfire Chats in celebration of National Aboriginal Day. Learn Indigenous perspectives of the cosmos through traditional storytelling with Rob Cardinal along with the mythology of Blackfoot Skies Wilton Goodstrike and a dance performance by Savanna Sparvier, the 2017 Calgary Stampede Indian Princess. The event goes rain or shine.
go.ucalgary.ca

Sled Island – Visual Arts

June 21 – 25, 2017
Multiple locations
Free

A five-day music and arts festival that takes over Calgary, there’s a great lineup of visual arts to check out on top of a smoking musical one. Sponsored by the Alberta College of Art + Design, see pieces like Haley Craw’s Her Potential For Corruption and Jade Nasogaluak Carpenter’s Uyarak//Stone.
sledisland.com

Opening Reception

June 22, 2017, 5:00 – 8:00pm
Herringer Kiss Gallery (709A 11th Ave. SW)
Free

With two new shows to check out—Mario Trejo’s Accumulated Relics of Arduous Performances of Repeated Gestures and Brigitta Kocsis Contingent Bodies—and both artists in attendance, it’s a great time to head to the Herringer Kiss Gallery.
herringerkissgallery.com

Cosmic Kinships Exhibition Tour

June 22, 2017, 7:00 – 8:00pm
Esker Foundation (1011 9th Ave. SE)
Free, registration recommended

What are the conversations that happen in silence? Is death a luxury? What exuberant, transformative forces surround and influence us every day? Join Curator Shauna Thompson on a tour of Jason de Haan and Anton Vidokle’s current exhibitions on display at the Esker Foundation.
eventbrite.ca

EV Junction Pop-Up Retail Park

June 22 – 25, 2017
EV Junction (4th St. & 8th Ave. SE)
Free

Head to the East Village every Thursday through Sunday until October 1 and hit up the food trucks, live music, performances, pop-up art, and much more. This Thursday, catch dPLUS with DELIRIUM SPB and JASU as part of the Creative Living Room Series and check out Junction Jams with BassBus Friday night.
evexperience.com

People’s Gathering

June 23, 2017, 11:30am – 2:00pm
Olympic Plaza (228 8th Ave. SE)
Free

The People’s Gathering honours the many diverse Indigenous cultures in Canada, including the Metis, Inuit, and First Nations. Held during Aboriginal Awareness Week and opening with a traditional Grand Entry, the event offers rich cultural experiences including sampling of traditional drumming and dancing.
thealex.ca

Inner City Stories

June 23, 2017, 5:00 – 7:00pm
Loft 112 (112, 535 8th Ave. SE)
Free

Join Lisa Murphy-Lamb for her reading of short story, Chucktown Sunrise, at this bi-monthly literary happy hour. Come for a reading, some refreshments and snacks, and go home full of story and with your own chapbook.
facebook.com

Family Day Festival and Powwow

June 24, 2017, 9:30am – 9:00pm
Former Indian Village, Stampede Grounds (1410 Olympic Way SE)
Free

Keeping the circle strong and sharing cultures during Aboriginal Awareness Week, people of all ages and backgrounds are encouraged to attend. Take in a pancake breakfast, learn a Metis jig, see a talent showcase, and much more, there’s even a performance from Susan Aglukark at 8:00pm.
facebook.com

How can you think that?!? A Political Bookclub

June 24, 2017, 10:00am – 12:00pm
Shelf Life Books (1302 4th St. SW)
Free

A book club for conservatives and liberals who want to get out of their bubbles and bridge the great divide. Buy the book, read it, and join in this lively discussion. This month’s book is Bob Rae’s What’s Happened to Politics? and discussions will be led by Julie Sedivy, a local scholar and writer.
facebook.com

Sled Island Block Party

June 24, 2017, 2:00 – 10:00pm
Inglewood (10th Ave. & 10th St. SE)
Free, all-ages

Get ready for this annual, free, outdoor, all-ages dance party. Featuring dance kingpin Jimmy Edgar, Flying Lotus curator picks Seven Davis Jr and IGLOOGHOST, live electronic act I M U R, funk-inflected rapper Lou Phelps, dark synth band Melted Mirror, energetic goofballs Physical Copies, and more.
facebook.com

Trading Post 150

June 25, 2017, 9:00am – 7:00pm
Mount Royal University (4825 Mount Royal Gate. SW)
Free

Bringing peoples together, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, join the Blackfoot people whose traditional territory we are on, to share, exchange, and heal. An Indigenous event around Canada 150, not a protest nor celebration, the day includes a market as well as guest speakers, and musical entertainment as well as traditional drum groups and powwow dancers.
facebook.com

12th Annual African American Spirituals Worship Service

June 25, 2017, 10:30am
St. Matthew’s United Church (2035 26A St. SW)
Free

Join St. Matthew’s United Church for its 12th annual African American Spirituals worship service, From Slavery to Freedom. Each year, the St. Matthew’s choir—under the direction of David Ferguson—commemorates and pays tribute to the historic struggle of the victims of the slave trade. A popular musical event, the service features selections of traditional African American spiritual works and historical references that tell the story of slavery, faith, and hard-won freedom.
st-matthews-uc.org