'Adrenaline and pure joy were feeding my soul': Nine photos from powwow at U of T

geoff.vendeville — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 17:09:56 +0000

geoff.vendeville Mon, 03/12/2018 - 13:09

Cutline

Hundreds of people, including kids of all ages, attended the powwow at U of T's Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport on March 11 (all photos by Laura Pedersen)

Geoffrey Vendeville

Laura Pedersen

Topic

City & Culture

Centre for Indigenous Studies

Cities

Goldring Centre

Indigenous

Subheadline

Hundreds turn out for powwow organized by Indigenous Studies Students' Union

Hundreds of people in a rainbow of colours filled the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport at the �ؿ�ζSM on Sunday for the Indigenous Studies Students' Union's powwow.

The celebration was the second in a row at the university, following the ISSU's massive powwow – the first at U of T in decades – at the Athletic Centre last year.

“Powwow is about family – whether that’s the powwow family or the �ؿ�ζSM family,” MC Bob Goulais, from Nipissing First Nation, told U of T News.

With the silky smooth voice of a radio deejay, Goulais narrated the proceedings from a table at the centre of the gym, beginning with the grand entry. Students organized the powwow, as they did last year, around the theme, “Honouring our students.”

“Having a university that supports cultural knowledge, Indigenous traditional knowledge, and puts on events that welcome and feature students is such an important thing,” Goulais said.

The powwow was also an opportunity for non-Indigenous people to learn about the diversity of Indigenous languages and cultures, he added. He said he hopes visitors would take an interest in more than what met the eye, including the personal stories of the singers, dancers and elders involved.

“A lot of the stories are about healing and how they came in touch with their culture again and became proud of who they are.”

Ryan DeCaire, an assistant professor at the Centre for Indigenous Studies and the department of linguistics, spoke at the powwow with students from his Kanien’kéha (Mohawk language) class.

They took turns saying the Ohen:ton Karihwatehkwen, a prayer that roughly translates to “the words that come before all else” and gives thanks to the elements of creation.

DeCaire, who is Mohawk from Wáhta Kanien’kehá:ka Territory, just east of Georgian Bay, learned the language as an adult. He's trying to pass it onto future generations through full-year courses at U of T. The language and its inherent knowledge are in danger of dying out, he said, as only about 1,000 fluent speakers remain in North America – and many of them are elderly.

Laura Pedersen

'Adrenaline and pure joy were feeding my soul': Nine photos from powwow at U of T

Read more about DeCaire in the Toronto Star

Here are more of staff photographer Laura Pedersen's favourite photos from the powwow: