The 23rd annual Spring Powwow will be held this weekend on Walpole Island First Nation.
The event will be held on Saturday May 20 and Sunday, May 21 at the Walpole Island Sports Complex and fairgrounds.
“The Walpole Island Spring Powwow is celebrating our communities history, culture and our identity with family, extended family and the general population,” Stacey Nahdee, one of the event organizers, told the Sydenham Current.
“It allows us the opportunity to pass on all aspects of our culture right from food, dancing, singing, bead work, specialized crafts, cultural protocol, open public honouring and acknowledgements and it also allows us to have fun with everybody that is in attendance.”
Nahdee said he has been coordinating this powwow for 18 years.
“I love the lifestyle that comes along with it,” he said.
“I wasn’t raised with the culture or spiritual guidance. Both of my parents are residential school survivors. Love them both. It started with me searching and learning about all of this stuff and just enjoying it. So it is part of my life and just like other people, it is also part of their lives when they go out and take their families on the road to other gatherings in other communities. That same energy that travel and goes with everybody.”
Nahdee said the Grand Entry will take place at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday and on Sunday at 1 p.m.
“It is mostly about just having fun with our cultural practices, our cultural dances and also reviving them,” he said.
“Bringing them back out and passing them on to future generations. We also do the baby pageant. The baby pageant’s are recognizing parents who choose to raise their children in the powwow lifestyle. Learning practices and the teachings that go along with the dancing and the signing of powwow.”
Nahdee said there will be a variety of different honourings, memorials, hand drums and specials during the event.
“There is plenty of time for everything,” he said.
“It just about going with the flow with all of the dancing. Some memorials and some honouring’s they might be real short, like 5-10 minutes and some will be a bit longer, like and hour.”
There will be multiple different vendors, some serving indigenous foods and others selling different types of crafts such as leather bead work, basketry, carvings, pottery, cloth and gemstones.
“It’s family oriented throughout the whole day,” he said.
“They come there as a family and either their children are dancing or their relatives are dancing and that’s part of it is that you get to go and watch them or sing if they are signing also. The memorials that we do are to honour the memory of people that have passed on and how we do that is that we give back to the community. So it is an honouring of giving and showing generosity and humility, even though it may be something that had a sad tone at one time.”
Watch for coverage and photos following the weekend event.
– Photo credit: Nathan Vercouteren
