Here's what's happening in B.C. to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day

National Indigenous Peoples Day will be celebrated across the country on Wednesday, including many events and activities being held in B.C.

The special day acknowledges the diverse culture, heritage and contributions of the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples, including the more than 200 First Nations that call B.C. home. 

The City of Vancouver will be commemorating National Indigenous Peoples Day at Carnegie Community Centre. The event will begin with a welcome from Chief Bill Williams of the Squamish Nation and Carleen Thomas from Tsleil-Waututh Nation. The day will also feature crafts, smudging, cultural performances from Muttdog, Carnegie's lexwst'i:lem drum group, Big Drum with John Sam and two-spirit Anishinaabe dancer Larissa Healey. 

Main Street, between East Hastings and East Pender, will be closed between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. 

The public is invited to join the celebrations starting at 1 p.m. on Wednesday. 

More than 700 students and staff from 30 schools will be gathering at the Vancouver School Board (VSB) education centre on West Broadway to celebrate and honour the rich culture of Indigenous peoples.

There will be a nine-metre teepee painted by Anishinaabe and Ojibwe artist Sharifah Marsden and a long list of cultural performers including Indigenous hip-hop group Curtis Clear Sky and the Constellationz and Tsatsu Stalkqayu's Coastal Wolf Pack, a group of Coast Salish singers, drummers and dancers. 

"This whole area belonged to the Coast Salish people at one point in time. So it's important to me that people understand and appreciate the land they stand on," said Iona Paul, founder of the Coastal Wolf Pack. 

Paul grew up on Tsartlip First Nation in the Saanich Penisula, near Victoria. For more than a decade, she's been performing alongside her husband, sons and 18 grandchildren, with the aim of educating more people about Coast Salish culture and heritage through traditional song and dance. 

"When we first come out, I'll see someone and they don't know what to expect and then I'll look at them at the end of our performance and they're smiling and they're clapping ... that is my proudest moment," Paul told CBC News. 

The district's Indigenous education department will also be debuting Drums Across the World, a video compiled by staff exploring traditional song, story, dance or teachings honouring Indigenous histories, knowledge and cultures from around the world.

"For myself as an Indigenous woman, growing up in a time where we saw nothing of who we were, of positivity in our education, the time has now changed," said Chas Desjarlais, acting director of instruction for Indigenous Education at the Vancouver School Board.

Desjarlais is a member of Cold Lake First Nations and a Treaty Six First Nation. 

"I look at my youngest daughter who is in Grade 5 ... the fact that she's able to receive a cultural education, I think really brings me hope."