Karen Pheasant-Neganigane delivers a journey through storytelling narratives
By Rick Garrick
KENORA — Wiikwemkoong’s Karen Pheasant-Neganigane recently delivered a journey through storytelling narratives presentation on April 11 at The Muse – The Lake of the Woods Museum and Douglas Family Art Centre in Kenora. A well-known pow wow dancer, Pheasant-Neganigane is also an assistant professor in the Department of General Education Teaching and Learning and Department of Humanities, Faculty of Arts at Mount Royal University in Calgary who was inducted into the Canadian Dance Hall of Fame in November 2023.
“I alluded or spoke about the Truth and Reconciliation and Calls to Action,” Pheasant-Neganigane says. “With all of this reconciliation that is going on, there’s been more of an awareness and fortunately, I see more allies or people that want to gain a deeper understanding. Sometimes they look at our pow wow dance as just a place to have fun, but one of the realities is that up until 1951, all of this was banned, so I have a small section in my book (Powwow: A Celebration through Song and Dance) that includes from the Indian Act the legislation where it was a criminal act to do any … cultural practices.”
Pheasant-Neganigane says she wrote Powwow: A Celebration through Song and Dance, which is categorized as a children’s book, while teaching first-year pre-service teachers.
“Because my teaching experience is generally only on-reserve and to First Nations students, when I went to the University of Alberta I did not realize the depth, the scope of the ignorance of Canadian society at large of our history,” Pheasant-Neganigane says. “So, when I wrote the book, that was kind of my intention is I was thinking of that audience.”
Pheasant-Neganigane says she spoke about her experiences in Treaty #3 territory, where Kenora is located, including when the late Elder Alex Skead encouraged her to wear the Jingle Dress.
“The way he said it, I’m like, ‘Yes, I need to be wearing our own dance [regalia], the Jingle Dress,” Pheasant-Neganigane says. “So, I’ve always returned to Treaty #3 to Lake of the Woods area to hear those songs, to be on that land, to dance that.”
Pheasant-Neganigane also highlighted the importance of following through with the Calls to Action, noting that she commended The Muse for the Indigenous exhibitions they have featured over the years since the Calls to Action were released.
“I was recognizing what that community in Kenora has done in regards to supporting our journey,” Pheasant-Neganigane says. “One of the things I made a joke about last night was the Calls to Action were like there was a big gate on the academy and then when the Calls to Action came they pulled the chain and let people like myself into the academy, people who are community-based.”
Pheasant-Neganigane adds that she played a DJ Shub song during her presentation and had the audience up and dancing.
“There’s people older than me, a sea of grey hair and I said, ‘Arms up, let’s move, let’s bounce and breathe’,” Pheasant-Neganigane says. “In one of my lives, I was a yoga teacher so I bring yoga into my presentations because that’s what I do when I teach because as a dancer we dance with our full being.”
Braden Murray, director at The Muse, says Pheasant-Neganigane’s presentation was great, noting that it had originally been scheduled for 2020.
“It’s really clear that Karen is an excellent communicator who has really interesting and kind of thought provoking views on the history of the pow wow and Indigenous culture more generally,” Murray says. “[Her presentation] was kind of based on her pow wow book, which came out in 2018. She told her story; she told some experiences of bringing people to pow wows and talked about some of the protocols — it was very interesting. She got everyone up dancing last night, she had some music on and [she’s] really an engaging speaker.”