Silver Lake Pow Wow

The Grand Parade of the Silver Lake Pow Wow is not an entirely solemn event, but it carries the weight of ceremony. The dancers enter the ring in a prescribed order, the flag bearers hop from one foot to the other to the beat of the drum, which performs a slow song that befits the occasion.

Although the Silver Lake Pow Wow is 19 years old, the gathering of communities at summer's end goes back a lot longer than that. Old friends greet each other with words and hugs, and after the elder has said a few words and the drum sends the assembled dancers through another turn around the ring, the parade breaks up and the greetings continue. Then the ring is opened up to everyone in attendance and it is completely filled. The Pow Wow is under way.

Photo - Kiley Stanley, 2nd from right, was declared Miss Garlic, the princess of the Maberly Fair parade.

At the Maberly Fair, the parade enters the fairgrounds led by two girls dressed as heads of garlic, followed by a marching pipe band, floats carrying entire extended families pulled by newer and older tractors (including one that is over 90 years old) followed by fire trucks. Politicians and heads of agricultural groups, as well as the fair convenor, bring greetings as the parade participants watch from the infield, but the fair is already underway. The Light Horse show is well into its second hour; the poultry are squawking away in the poultry display shed; Marilyn the Psychic is already making predictions in her booth; the zucchini vehicles are set out on a table even though the race is hours away, and old friends are greeting each other throughout the compact fairgrounds. It’s a one-day fair so no one wants to wait for the ceremony to be completed before starting to have fun.

Light Horse pull at Parham Fair.

The Parham Fair starts on Friday evening. The grandstand is almost full when the fair committee and township politicians proclaim the fair open, but the people aren’t paying much attention. They are waiting for the Light Horse pull to begin. They want to see if Bill Lee will win again (he will – at 7,200 pounds, see photo on page 9). Meanwhile kids and teenagers are gathering at the bandshell for the Cowboy/Cowgirl and Parham Idol contests to start. Ambush is ready to play when the contests end, and the midway is open for business.

These three events and others are all about people gathering in community to mark the end of another summer, before preparations begin for another harsh rural winter’s onset.

The seventh installment of the annual Sundance Studio Tour once again attracted thousands of visitors to the surrounds of the Fall River Restaurant in Maberly, where hosts Paul Zammit and Michele Murphy opened up their property and restaurant kitchen for those with an appetite for fine food, arts and crafts and local live music. The show, which was begun by Carmine and Cam Allen, was taken over two years ago by Zammit and Murphy who wanted to continue on the tradition after the former organizers let it go. “We wanted to keep that amazing show that they created alive and instead of letting it die we took their baby on and adopted it ourselves. We are offering people a little bit of everything here all in one single stop.”

The juried show boasts a riverside art booth walk along the picturesque Fall River. This year's show included 35 art and craft innovators, many of whom are local folk who create interesting and high-end art and crafts. One such artisan, whose booth was constantly buzzing with browsers and buyers, was that of Willa Murray, co-owner and creator at Mari Cla Ro. Willa and her business partner Sven Schlegel create a cutting edge line of bags, purses and knapsacks from high quality industrial materials, like seat belts, leather and recycled furniture upholstery. “Basically everything that we use was once waste and we figure out cool ways to design and transform it into long lasting pieces that are also beautiful as well as functional.” Part of the beauty of the bags is that they do not scream "recycled" but rather appear as brand new top quality original objects. Along with their wide selection of bags are a line of earrings and necklaces made from recycled wood salvaged from the dashboards of Jaguars, Mercedes and other high-end vehicles. They also sell earrings made from super 8 film. The packaging for the jewelry pieces often will include information about what film and what car they were salvaged from. The work demonstrates the two creators' keen design sense, which they honed at school - Murray as a graduate of heritage carpentry and Schlegel from a background in resource management. Both Murray and Schlegel have recently relocated their business/studio and homes to Snow Road Station after having run their own store location in Toronto's trendy Roncesvalles strip. I came away from the booth with a very handsome shoulder bag that boasts sturdy zippers and a generously wide strap, and which can carry everything I need while out on the beat.

Other notable items for sale included the intricate and beautifully designed jewelry by Anita Cerro, whose newest work includes a line of necklaces made with a blend of natural wood and silver. Andrea Crowe's felt creations were as eye catching as they are fashionable and included her felted bracelets and felted scarves, the latter of which played with the idea of light and shadow using rectangular felt attachments worked onto transparent scarf material. Local woodworker Frank Sammut of Kokopelli Custom Woodworking had on display his live edge furniture made from local wood plus clocks, boxes, cutting boards and his spectacular hemlock clothes trees, which work perfectly outdoors. His wife Sue Sammut had a booth next door showing off her colorful mosaic windows.

Visitors feasted at numerous umbrella-ed picnic tables set up on site where they enjoyed an organic lunch courtesy of the Fall River Restaurant, whose staff served up local and organic pulled pork sandwiches, turkey/cranberry sausages and grilled Arctic char burgers. Local beer and wine was also to be had as were fresh baked goodies and good coffee.

Local musicians Mario Franco, Hermann Amberger and Kevin Head played an eclectic range of folk music throughout the three-day event as visitors strolled the extensive grounds. By mid-day on Sunday over 3000 visitors had already been counted and Michelle Stewart, who helped organize the event, was pretty certain that this year's attendance would beat out last year's 4000 visitors. The participating artists and a few local businesses donated items for an on site raffle to raise funds for breast cancer research at the Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre. Zammit and Murphy both wished to thank all of the visitors, the artists and their crew of 12 volunteers who all help to make the show an ongoing success.

Students, staff and supporters of the Brooke Valley School near Maberly demonstrated what community spirit is all about and busted move after move on the dance floor at the community hall in Maberly on Saturday April 6.

The school's fundraiser event featured on stage the talents of Terry Tufts, his wife Kathryn Briggs along with Don Kenny, Ken Workman and Sean Burke as they performed an evening of Rolling Stones hits that kept the crowd on their feet.

The school, which opened 38 years ago, in 1975, was begun by a handful of young parent back-to-the-landers, many of whom were professional teachers who wanted to educate their kids closer to home.

I spoke with one of those parents, Coral Nault, now a grandmother many times over, who teaches the school's 14 students in grades 1 through 8. “It was back in 1975 that we contacted the Ministry of Education to find out how to start our own school. We got all of the information and were granted permission, and the school has been running ever since,” Nault said.

The school was originally located in a house, and in 1979 it was moved into a 1860 log building. The parents renovated the building but it burned down a few years later, in 1981. The present day school building is located at 190 Seaborne on 300 acres of land. It was built the same year through fundraising dollars along with free labour given by parents and supporters. The two storey building consists of two main areas: one upper more traditional classroom with desks, and a lower classroom area that serves as the art, lunch room, and stage area. The school's curriculum follows the Ministry of Education guidelines and then some, and it offers an extensive theatre and art component as well as outdoor education, hiking and outdoor sports activities.

The school also boasts its very own archeological dig site where the old log house once stood. With Nault, who is also a trained illustrator and theatre buff (students perform four shows a year), students are getting more than their fair share of fine art and theatre studies while she is ruling the roost. “The kids here get a lot of confidence from theatre and performance and academically they have no problems at all.”

Nault said that when she and the other parents started out, they never imagined that the school would be around almost four decades later. “We never thought others would want their kids to attend and in fact we thought we were just building a school for our own children. This year my last grandchild is in school with me.” She said that if the school had eventually closed, the parents had plans to turn it into a retirement home. But that plan has never needed to be pursued.

Tufts and his band opened the evening with the rousing Stones classic Satisfaction which got all ages out of their seats and was followed by countless very danceable classics. A highlight of the evening took place when current and former students at the school joined the band on stage for “Wild Horses” and “You Can't Always Get What You Want”.

The latter song, however, has not applied to the visionary Brooke Valley School parents; for them, rather, it has been the case that if you have the will, know how and determination - you can get exactly what you want.