Blanket makes ideal pow-wow memory
By Maurice Switzer
NORTH BAY – Nancy Potvin’s memory might be a bit hazy about all the details surrounding her first-ever pow-wow experience.
“It was the first one in North Bay and I think it was in the early 70s – around the time the Friendship Centre was starting up,” recalls the centre’s outgoing executive director. “I think the local Metis association was involved in organizing it.”
She recalls sitting in the Memorial Gardens – she thinks with pals Debbie Favreau and Bonnie Dunlop – and listening to a local radio announcer make the draw for the grand door prize – “it could have been Bob Wood or Clancy McDonald”– from a big drum on the arena floor.
And she remembers paying 25 cents – “ or it might have been three tickets for a quarter” – for a chance in the fund-raising raffle.
But for certain she will never forget her name being announced as the winner of the main prize – a six-by-nine-foot blanket crafted by members of the Nipissing First Nation Homemakers Club.
“I was so excited,” says Nancy – then Mitchell. “It’s a beautiful work of art. There are four faces and head-dresses – from the Nipissing Warriors crest – tipis, tomahawks, and canoes….”
This spring Potvin announced her retirement after three years as executive director of the North Bay Indian Friendship Centre – a big brown fortress of a building on Cassells Street. Her seven years of service included stints as program supervisor and working in life-long care and health outreach programs. And she played an instrumental role in establishing the reputation of the centre’s kitchen for serving some of the heartiest banquet meals in town.
Before coming to the friendship centre, Potvin worked for North Bay Aboriginal Housing. Her retirement coincides with that of husband Mike, a longtime Ontario Northland employee. They had considered settling in British Columbia, but a vacation trip revealed alarmingly-steep home prices and helped convince them to continue living in North Bay.
This past year Nancy commissioned artisan Ruth Jones to make a replica of the blanket she won at the initial North Bay Pow-Wow so that each of her two children could have a copy.
The exact year of the city’s first Native celebration might escape her, but Nancy and family have the next one marked in their datebook. The Maamwi Kindaaswin Pow-Wow will be held Saturday, June 6th at the Discovery North Bay Museum near the city’s waterfront.
Maurice Switzer is a citizen of the Mississaugas of Alderville First Nation. He lives in North Bay and delivers public education presentations on the Treaty Relationship. He can be contacted at mauriceswitzer4@gmail.com