Annual Anishinaabe Keeshigun gathering celebrates culture and tradition in Thunder Bay
By Rick Garrick
THUNDER BAY — Biigtigong Nishnaabeg’s Lily Moses was honoured to win the Women’s Special dance competition on the first day of Fort William Historical Park’s Anishinaabe Keeshigun gathering, held August 22-23 in Thunder Bay. The annual gathering, which highlights Anishinaabe culture, traditions, language, and technology, has been held since the early 1980s.
“I’m really honoured and I always dance for the people — that’s my whole purpose why I’m a Jingle Dress dancer,” Moses says. “I pray whenever I dance; I always pray for my family, and I pray for the other dancers’ families, too. That’s the importance of being a Jingle Dress dancer, is to be sober and to show good life to the youth, and to always just be mindful and come from a good place.”
Moses says she has been dancing since she was a child.
“My mother, she always took me to pow wows,” Moses says. “We’d always travel around to the different communities.”
Seine River First Nation citizen Emma Boshkaygan, who finished second in the Women’s Special dance competition, says there were a lot of good dancers at the pow wow.
“I enjoy coming here every year — I enjoy dancing,” Boshkaygan says. “I just like being exercised. When I’m getting old, I might not be able to dance later.”
Casey Wemigwans, citizen of Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, enjoyed the opportunity to share her braiding skills at her Deadly Braidz booth during the gathering.
“I braid on the pow wow trail,” Wemigwans says. “I do double Dutch braids; they’re extra deadly and people enjoy them. I love seeing them walking around the pow wow.”
Wemigwans says she has been braiding hair for about 10 years, including about three to four years on the pow wow trail.
“The little girl that just came, she was so happy,” Wemigwans says. “She was smiling at herself in the mirror — she started twirling around and it was very cute, I love it. I have a lot of very satisfied customers.”
The pow wow featured Dave Simard as emcee, John Slipperjack as arena director, and Douglas Gagnon as spiritual advisor. The host drum was Ojibwe Alliance, the co-host drum was Da Bloodline, the invited drum was Fox Island, and the head dancers were Adam Hubbard and Tanis Faulconer.
“It’s always a good event to come out to for celebrating our culture,” Simard says, noting that he has been participating in the pow wow since he was a youth with the Lyons Dance Troupe. “It’s evolved a lot; it’s grown a lot and it’s really wonderful to see all these people here. We’re doing a lot of the showcasing of the different styles of dancing, they’re having a bannock-making contest here this year, there’s a number of different crafters and vendors that are wonderful, and we have a lot of visiting singing groups here as well.”
James Wilkinson, a drum carrier at the pow wow, stressed how the drummers shared their culture during the pow wow.
“It’s an opportunity for us to share our culture and also to demonstrate our culture,” Wilkinson says, noting the importance of the Seven Grandfather Teachings, Anishinaabemowin, and the drum. “The drum, which is the heartbeat of Mother Earth, that’s important to share because whether you understand it or not, your spirit feels it, and your heart feels it.”
The gathering also featured a range of activities such as paddling a canoe, baggataway (lacrosse), double ball, axe throwing, archaeology, a scavenger hunt on the historic site to learn some Anishinaabemowin vocabulary, crafts, artisan demonstrations, food samples of some traditional Indigenous foods, and contests such as napawagan (bone and pin game) and bannock making. A community feast featuring bison stew with smoked tomatoes and stone bread, and a vegetarian option, was held late Saturday afternoon.