Teachers learn about traditional powwow

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School teachers were invited to dance around the big drum and hear Native songs and stories at a powwow workshop held in April.

It was meant to encourage more Native studies in the classroom and to get rid of old stereotypes, said Native education adviser with the Toronto Board of Education, Vern Douglas.

"Almost everything that's being taught about Native people is called the 'stones and bones' approach; tipis, toboggans, snowshoes, igloos, totem poles. . . a very materialistic approach to study," Douglas said.

He felt the powwow was just one part of Native culture which teachers knew little about. At the start of the workshop when he began the smudging ceremony, a few teachers exchanged confused glances and whispers. Douglas led the opening prayer and then introduced Mark Phillips of the Red Hawk Drummers.

Phillips, a soft-spoken, tall man wearing a cowboy hat, called himself a traditionalist and has often refused to be photographed. Photos weren't allowed taken at this workshop.

While the other three drummers sat around the drum placed in the middle of the cozy library at Dovercourt Public School, Phillips stood at his chair and spoke to the teachers.

"We're not into competitive singing and dancing," he said, adding that the powwow is supposed to be "a time when people come together to sing, dance. . . meet old friends and make new friends. It's a great time of celebration."

He told the group the story of the first powwow drum. A Lakota woman ran from a battle and hid underwater for four days and nights. Then the spirit came and gave her the gift of the drum to bring peace to warring Native nations.

"It was given at a time when many generations of blood had been spilled," he explained. "We never had a big drum before. It's not ours. It belongs to the Lakota people, the Plains people."

The very first powwow occurred when the Ojibwa and Lakota met on a clearing where the prairies ended and the woods began. There, Phillips said, songs were sung for days to honor newborns, adolescents, adults, Elders and the spirits.

"The drum represents unity and peacefulness," he said. It is also the first sound we hear in the womb; our mothers' heartbeats. "The drum is within each and every human being on this earth."

He pointed out how the drum does not rest on the ground, but is raised up a few inches to allow the four winds to blow through. It receives healing energy up from the earth and down from the sky.

"As human beings, we can get above our emotions and things of the earth that hold us down," Phillips said.

The singing, he said, is "the highest form of prayer," and dancing is a celebration of life. He also mentioned that some Native outfits such as the jingle dress is used in healing dances by women, he explained. People often request the dance at powwows for sick relatives.

"It is a very powerful dance."

The men wear sweetgrass for the exhausting grass dance, he added. "I'd fall flat on my face if I tried to do the grass dance," he joked. He also spoke about the round dance and its importance.

"It symbolizes that. . . we're all dancing and sharing in the circle of life."

He began to drum and sing while his young daughter, Gadj, his sister-in-law, Liz, and his wife Donna Powless showed the group some women's dances.

Dressed in traditional outfits, Liz and Gadj hopped and twirled through the butterfly dance. Then Donna stepped through a slower dance, called the women's traditional, with a shawl folded over her arms.

The teachers were also asked to dance. Some seemed nervous as they stepped into the inner circle, held hands and followed the movements. But Phillips ended the workshop with the exciting "Stomp," the group's most popular song.

Douglas said teachers shouldn't hold powwows on their own, because if they have one, they must commit to three more. Instead, they should have traditional socials to expose the students to Native celebration.