New powwow dancers initiated into old traditions

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In an initiation powwow ceremony held at the Ben Calf Robe School gymnasium on Mar. 25, more than 20 young people were initiated as powwow dancers. The event, set up by the O'Kesico Aboriginal Women's Society and the Cross Cultural Families of Native Children, was funded by the Waln Foundation of Edmonton.

More than 200 people attended the afternoon celebration, which showcased the dancers in their new powwow outfits moving to the beat of a powwow drum group.

"This initiation powwow was set up because most of the families here did not have a strong connection to their reserves or communities. Most of them lived in the city for most of their lives. It was to initiate the children to be powwow dancers," said Cecile Gladue, co-ordinator.

"We realized that these children had no Aboriginal community to go to be initiated in. So we brought in a dance group from Southern Alberta to show the children how to dance and to give them information on powwow protocol," she said.

By partnering with the Cross Cultural Families of Aboriginal Children (a group of non-Aboriginal families who have adopted Native children), the O'Kesico Aboriginal Women's Society's aim was to join with another group learning more about the Native culture.

Gladue said a lot of the women at the powwow belonged to a band, were non-status or Metis, but did not know much about their heritage other than that they were Aboriginal.

"All of the moms wanted to have the children learn about their Aboriginal culture and to be more involved in their heritage. Some of the parents had gone to powwows and have seen them before and they wanted to get their children involved but did not know how," said Gladue. "They had no means to get them there or how to make dance outfits for the kids. With a lot of hard work the parents were able to make them. So on Saturday they also had a chance to celebrate and see the completion of all the sewing they'd done since October," she said.

Three years ago, Aboriginal Health Services of Edmonton held several community information sessions in the city. One of the things the group addressed was that a lot of Aboriginal women were not accessing health services in the city. At those information gatherings they invited different agencies and speakers in hopes of finding solutions to the issues pertaining to the barriers that Aboriginal women face when accessing health services. Out of the meetings came a number of groups were started to help combat these problems. One group was the O'Kesico Aboriginal Women's Society.

"It was a beautiful thing to see the kids dancing at the powwow. It was worth all the hard work. They were able to see that being Native was not a bad thing," said Gladue. "It is important in making the kids aware that there is a lot of good in their culture. I believe that the earlier you get the kids involved into dancing and ceremonies the less time they will have in getting into trouble and into gangs," she said.