17th annual Silver Lake Pow Wow

Sep 01, 2011

Photo: The Nelson family dancers (with Riley Brooks), l-r, Nakita, Tammy, Riley Brooks, Bernard (head male dancer), Shemia, and Keesha, (head female dancer).

On August 27 and 28, close to 1000 people gathered at the shores of Silver Lake for the 17th annual community Pow Wow, which is put on jointly by members of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities in the area.

Traditionally held to trade the four sacred medicines- cedar, sage, sweet grass and tobacco, as well as to carry on commerce and match making, Pow Wows are now held primarily as a way for Aboriginal friends and family to meet.

The event attracted members from the Shabot Obaadjiwan and Ardoch Algonquin First Nations, members of the Akwesasne Reserve, and many others too numerous to mention. Highlights of the weekend events included the new dancers at the dance out ceremony, honours songs sung for community members in the military who are currently serving abroad.

As always there was feasting on traditional native foods plus a variety of native crafts available for purchase. The drumming, songs and dances performed at the Pow Wow are undertaken as forms of prayers. Pow Wow emcee, Mitchell Shewell of the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, stressed the important place that prayer takes at a traditional Pow Wow . “When we dance, it is a prayer for all of those people who cannot dance, those in hospitals, in institutions, or in jails as well as for those with physical disabilities.”

I met up with a family of dancers, the Nelson family, of the Port Hope and Nippising First Nations, who were making their way to the Pow Wow site for Sunday's grand entry, each dressed in their incredibly colourful regalia. This is the third year that the Nelson family has accepted the invitation to be head dancers at Silver Lake

The Pow Wow receives no government funding and is only able to take place thanks to the generosity of individuals in the surrounding communities. The Pow Wow is a not for profit event and all the proceeds go toward covering its costs. “This is a community-based traditional Pow Wow that exists because natives and non-natives come together to raise the funds necessary to put it on”, said arena director Danka Brewer. “So everyone is welcome to attend.”