Laurentian University mini pow wow an opportunity to share and learn about Indigenous culture

By Rick Garrick

SUDBURY — Laurentian University Indigenous Student Affairs Mini Pow Wow Head Dancers Melanie Roque and Paskwa Lightning enjoyed sharing their culture on Oct. 28 in the Indigenous Sharing and Learning Centre’s Round Room.

“It was an honour actually to dance,” says Roque, social media and events coordinator for the Indigenous Sharing and Learning Centre at Laurentian University. “It was my first time as Head Dancer and when I got out there it felt right, I just felt like it was a good day and I felt proud to represent our office and be dancing with such great and talented dancers that day.”

Lightning, Indigenous student and community engagement coordinator at Laurentian University, was also proud to participate in the pow wow.

“It was really good to have the pow wow because we’re showing we have a presence here at the university and [we who] work here are actively taking part and participating in cultural events such as the pow wow or things coming up soon such the round dances that are coming up for the winter months,” Lightning says. “So I think it was good that we took part and didn’t just delegate the duties to somebody else.”

Lightning says the pow wow provided non-Indigenous students with an opportunity to learn more about Indigenous culture.

“We had a lot of participation from non-Indigenous students,” Lightning says. “They wanted to learn how to dance and stuff like that, so it was neat.”

Lightning says they had a well-known drum group, the High Ridge Singers from Moose Factory, at the pow wow.

“They often compete with world champion drum groups and they hold their own, so it was really nice to have them at our pow wow,” Lightning says. “There’s different stories in the songs that they sing.”

Mary Laur, director of the Indigenous Sharing and Learning Centre at Laurentian University, says a young dancer was honoured with an Eagle Feather by men’s traditional dancer Tim McGregor during the pow wow.

“Your regalia, how you dance is important, but equally as important is who you are inside, and that comes out in your dancing,” Laur says. “So [McGregor] really saw that he had a good heart and that he was really dancing in a good way and he recognized this person had a good spirit — he said it matched the two so that was why he wanted to honour him with the Eagle Feather. I think what he was sharing with all of us is it’s equally important to be balanced in your inside and your outside.”

Natalie Lacasse, Indigenous student transitions navigator at Laurentian University, says there was an excellent turnout for the pow wow, which was organized by Indigenous Students Affairs.

“We had a whole bunch of community members, we had different staff and faculty from Laurentian,” Lacasse says. “We also had students that we’d never seen before from different programs and we actually had some elementary schools stop in — we broke them up into three different sections, brought them around to see the vendors, had them out by our sacred fire, and then also in the round room viewing the pow wow.”

Lacasse says the sacred fire was located outside one of the Round Room’s four entrances.

“We have four different entrances into the Round Room for the four different directions, so our sacred fire was in line right with the drummers,” Lacasse says.