Round Dance for Rama

By Rick Garrick

CHIPPEWAS OF RAMA FIRST NATION—Rama’s first round dance was a success with about 200-300 people in attendance for a pipe ceremony, feast, singing by eight invited singers and a giveaway on March 31.
“It went amazing — we had close to 200 people [who signed in],” says Stephanie McInnis, Minobmaaziwin worker with Rama’s Family Well Being program. “It was our first round dance we have done here in Rama, so it was a learning experience for us all. It was awesome and amazing having so many people come into our community and learning about the round dance and where it came from.”
The pipe ceremony was conducted by Jimmy Dick with about 50-60 people in attendance and the feast was catered by Tami Lamb of Cornucopia Catering. The customary hanging up of the flags was done after the feast to signify the protection of the dancers and other participants.
“Once we hung the flags up and once we got started with the round dance, we probably had about 300 people,” says Melvin John, the emcee from Kehewin, Alberta. “They filled the dance floor pretty good—they had a good turnout.”
The round dance’s special guest was Harvey Dreaver, the co-emcee was Beedahsiga Elliott and the stickman was Gabe Gaudet. The invited singers were Dave Hookima, Rob J. Henry, Lorne Pawis, Kyle Big Canoe, Brennan Govender, Elijah Stevens, Wayne Moberly and Gary Parker.

“Once we filled all the eight singers that sang all their four songs, they more-or-less sang the night away,” John says. “After about six or seven singers went by, then we had a giveaway.”
John says gifts were passed on to each and every one of the invited guests and community members during the giveaway.
“We had specific gifts for our invited singers and our honoured guests and also our Elders,” McInnis says. “After we had taken care of our honoured guests, Elders and singers, we had a giveaway for the rest of the community and people who came.”
John says he tried to make the participants feel comfortable about round dancing by explaining how round dancers from Alberta dance a certain way according to where they are from.
“Usually back home we would know where you are from by the way your hips go,” John says. “Whatever the community is in the surrounding area, we would know where you are from by the way you move. That’s what I told the audience, and they kind of got a giggle out of it, because I wanted them to feel comfortable that yes, this is their first one. And by the end of the night, everybody had their own little signature.”
John says the highlight of the round dance was when Harvey Dreaver spoke about how he grew up in the round dance and the protocols he learned from the Elders who asked him to sing.
“His teachings were that these songs were meant to be passed down and he [shared] a story where a grandfather wanted to sing with him at a round dance,” John says. “And he told him to: ‘Remember the songs because I’m getting old now and these songs are meant to be passed on’.”
John says some of the songs are done in English and some are done in the Indigenous language.
“It’s really different from Pow Wow,” John says. “It’s more or less a healing ceremony where you ask for something and you then receive prayers for it and then you dance and then you feast. You end off with a closing song and then you allow that ceremony to leave.”
Rama plans to hold another round dance next year.