Powwow season will be missed

Page 5

It's summer and powwow season is almost half over. By the time this column is printed, my family and I will be in New Zealand. We'll be gone for seven weeks. I know it will be a very interesting time and I look forward to the opportunity to take pictures "down under."

As well, it's with a sadness for all the powwows that we will miss that get me thinking that my August column ought to be about powwow.

I am not a really talkative guy. I see the world in pictures and maybe that's why I am comfortable about having a relationship with the world through the lens of a camera. Maybe it's because my first language is Cree that I see the world in pictures. It's a beautiful language and it is so descriptive. Even though, as a result of foster care, I have lost most of my Cree, maybe I am left with the gift of seeing the world in pictures and not words.

I really like this picture. It's one of my all-time favorites. I took this picture at a powwow in the summer of 1994. We were at Poundmakers. Several years after it was taken, I ran into the young couple at the mall in North Battleford.

North Battleford is one of the shopping stops for First Nations people in this neck of the woods. This young couple are still together and when I saw them in the mall they had just had a new baby. This baby turned four on July 14.

The young man is Brandon Favel and the woman is Michelle Ramsay. Brandon is from Thunderchild First Nation. He's a bull rider and a saddle bronc rider. Last summer, he won four bull riding competitions. He won a champion buckle from Twin River Rodeo club. He's only been riding for a year and a half now. Isn't he just doing terrific?

At powwow, lots of people take pictures of the dancers. The male dancers provide a powerful image for the camera. The women are so graceful. But these are the "easy" pictures. And I don't mean any disrespect. Dancers are very special people with very special responsibilities. It's just that powwow is so much more than the pageant and the dancing.

On the powwow trail, as dancers and drummers know, it is very much being part of a family. Families talk about where they are going next and all the news and business of their families (and probably a few other relatives too!!).

Sometimes, you don't see people for a long time and you are so happy to see them again. Powwow is about relationships. It's about sharing. For me, this is the really important about chasing powwow. It's a sad thing when powwow is over for the season.

The memory of powwow is also very important to me. I remember being a kid and going to powwow. I would see all my cousins there. Many people in my family danced. But powwow is more than just memories. It's also history. I know now, that it was against the law for Indian people to dance or go to ceremony. Many people in this territory were charged and some even went to jail for following the ways the Creator gave to our people. I am grateful to our ancestors who protected our ways for us and hope that just a little my pictures help people think about why it's important to be who we are as Indian people.