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Windspeaker Radio Network Community Champion of the Week. Each week, the Windspeaker Radio Network recognizes and celebrates an Indigenous champion from Alberta who demonstrates exceptional commitment to enhancing their community.

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Okay, Nitaniku Agisisuyaki. Hello. I'm my name is Alana Many Bears, and I just uh said in Blackfoot. Uh my Blackfoot name and hello. Oki means hello. I work with the Aboriginal Friendship Center of Calgary as a cultural coordinator.

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Alana, tell us, you're making such an impact in the community.

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For myself, um as a cultural coordinator, having the vast knowledge of our culture, sharing our knowledge, and also um providing smudge and a lot of one-on-one sessions with, you know, with a lot of our elders or indigenous population. And so it's a lot of um the urban indigenous community uh we have in Calgary is providing these um cultural teachings, these uh traditional arts, and you know, just providing all that for a lot a lot of our indigenous population in Calgary.

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So it's National Indigenous History Month. What does it mean to you celebrating your heritage and sharing it with non-Indigenous people?

SPEAKER_00 1:25

A lot of our non-indigenous people, um, just letting them know about our history, our rich uh cultural knowledge and arts, um, providing that, you know, it it opens up um who we are as First Nations and you know, just letting them know, you know, the importance, the significance of our culture. And with that, um sharing it, you know, I I love sharing a lot of our uh our culture, especially with land-based teachings, our language, and s and a lot of that refers through uh storytelling by your ancestors, and the storytelling has been with us for genera many generations from the past, and they're still passed down today.

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This has been the Wing Speaker Radio Network Community Champion of the Week.