Musings on Aboriginal Day...

Aboriginal Day falls on the Summer Solstice. On reserves, this is a holiday.  Now, our on-reserve school is not going to have that day off.  Rather, we are going to get Friday (payday) off instead.  Since we have two cultural days planned anyway, it has been decided that the school will host Aboriginal Day (all staff working), instead people of going elsewhere to celebrate. 
It is true that the community has not prepared any special events for the day itself.  The reasoning is, therefore, that the school should  step in, rather than have people go somewhere else to celebrate the day.  And this way, people get a three-day long weekend. Hmm...
I'm still having a little trouble with this though. Shouldn't it be up to the community to decide how to celebrate the day? Yes, they don't plan parades (probably not very cultural) or traditional events.  However, that is their choice. Also, there is an ongoing problem with parents not sending school-age children to school on payday Fridays.  Does this mean that we are sanctioning this behaviour?  And could we do the same with Canada Day? Would Canadians prefer a 3-day weekend over celebrating on July 1?  What is more respectful - celebrating on the actual day, or going ahead with a cultural day which would be fun to attend?
Personally, I hope it means that community pride will pick up after this and we can plan on community volunteers picking up the slack next year. (It still occurs to me that I am possibly biased my thinking that Aboriginal Day must be "celebrated" in a certain way.) What I do know is I certainly think we should always have the Summer Solstice off!
What say you?