Round dance connects people with their culture

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Winter is a time when people come trudging out from their homes, plow through the snow, and take in a round dance or two.

Round dances are now under way in earnest and one of the more recent ones at the Canadian Native Friendship Centre on Nov. 28 had about 800 people come and go. It was actually an excellent turnout given Enoch and Pigeon Lake were also hosting round dances.

Sponsored by the Mountain Plains Community Services Society, which works closely with foster parenting, the dance was prefaced by a pipe ceremony and feast. The four attending Elders were Hobbema's Norman Yellowbird, Philip Bear from Little Pine, Sask., Mary Thunderchild from Thunderchild, Sask., and Reba Bull from Duffield.

Doug and Alfred Bonais served as the evening's emcees and managed to keep the gym floor filled with dancers all night long as a number of visiting drummers from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Oklahoma filled the air with song.

Bev Bagnall, the cultural co-ordinator for the society was thrilled with the turnout.

"I'm extremely happy," she said. "These people are urban and that's where most of our kids and parents come from. Here, they can meet with their biological parents and relatives," she stated.

Karen Schofield who's been a foster parent for the last two-and-a-half years said she and her husband became foster parents after seeing an ad at the 1996 Dreamspeakers Festival. They had three children, but at present they care for a 12-year-old girl.

Schofield appreciates the fact the society is "Native oriented and has a sharing circle for both adults and children." She said it's an honor to be foster parents and she certainly likes the support they get from the family support worker, as well as the director.

As for the children, they take them to outings like the round dances and "just try to make a difference in their lives." When it's time for children to be returned to social services or other families, she states, "it's very hard to let go." At the same time, however, "we know they're not ours to keep. They belong to the Creator."