Listening to Our Youth

Bizindaaw Oshkiniijig or Listening to Our Youth was the title of the 17^th Annual Traditional Pow Wow hosted by the Georgian Bay Native Friendship Centre in Midland earlier this month.  Held in Sainte-Marie Park in partnership with Sainte Marie Among the Hurons, this Pow Wow is open to everyone.

Upon arriving and paying the low entrance fee, I was presented with an excellent brochure on pow wows, protocols, etiquette, the different kinds of dances, drums, songs and many other interesting cultural facts.  This seemed to be a very generous way to reach out to non-Indigenous people and share this celebration in a meaningful way.

Here is the opening of the brochure:

The Pow Wow:  The Heartbeat of Mother Earth

Every weekend throughout the summer, the Pow Wow has become the heartbeat pulsing tempo of drum groups reverberating across North America.  Men, women, and children gather in communities across the continent, in intense celebration of what it means to be one of us… to be First Nations peoples.

What is a Pow Wow?  The word itself comes from the old Algonquin word for medicine man.  “Powwow, he dreams.”  A Pow Wow is still a ceremony that sets a person to dreaming of the old days, the old ways, and most of all, looking ahead to the future.

Like the ceremonies performed by the ancient medicine man, the Pow Wow is a healing and unifying ritual.  It is a time of singing and dancing, sharing and laughing, crying and teaching, learning and loving.  By remembering the past, we celebrate our future.  We celebrate with the dancing and dress.  We are proud of the colour of our culture.  As soon as the drum groups begin, the dancers gather in full regalia. 

The Emcee lets everyone know which dances can be photographed and which cannot out of respect.  He invited people to post pictures of the Pow Wow on social media.  I have included some of the photos I took.

View from the public viewing area

It was good to see young people proud of their culture, celebrating with their families and friends. 

The strength of the traditional women dancers who always have one foot on the ground was powerful.  The male dancers stood to honour these women and the role they play in protecting the water and the earth as they danced around the circle of the dance arena. 

Young hoop dancer

If you have never been to a Pow Wow, I invite you to attend one sometime.  They are held all across the country in the warm months and are a way to see and feel the strength of the past and the possibilities of the future.  They are celebrations that are welcoming and if you go to listen and learn and celebrate respectfully you will come away a richer person.