Our Story
The Desnedé Farmers Market celebrates food, arts, and crafts in Fort Smith, NWT. The market occurs Sundays from 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. on the grass by Centennial Arena. From July to the end of September.
Established in 2016, Desnede Farmers Market is something the community looks forward to every summer. It’s a place to gather, connect and support the local economy and small businesses.
How did we get our name?
The Desnedé Farmers’ Market was named to honour a truly mighty river - the Slave River. It’s a river which Fort Smith and surrounding communities owe their existence.
The river is known by many names, but Desnedé, the Mighty River (Des), is Dënësųłinë́. ‘Desnede’ is spelled differently in some places when it is written in Roman script because there is no equivalent for the ‘d’ sound which is close to ‘dth’ in pronunciation.
At a time when communities in the North are recapturing traditional place names, the market’s founding board was encouraged to use this name for the river in the market’s name. Native speakers of the language welcomed the use of ‘Desnedé’, a word that sounds very beautiful when spoken and best reflects the nature of our river.