"Isn't this awesome, can you believe all the natives around here?" says my new Albertan friend to me. Hip-hop is spinning in the background and the club is full of beautiful brown faces. I look around and drink it all in. "Yes it is amazing, I wish it was always like this. It would be so good. Just like New Mexico . . . " I say. It's Sunday evening, we are at an unofficial wrap party at a spot downtown the last night of the Toronto Pow Wow.
I believe that is what the pow wow is really meant to be about, a place of social gathering for Native people to come together, be together, meet, hang out, laugh and have fun. I have been so blessed this past weekend to see so many friends who I haven't seen for some time and so many new friends who have come into my life.
It has been a weekend full of fun, festivities, and frivolity. I am glad that I made the effort to come back from Los Angeles to make this great event. It has been worth leaving the sun, sand, and surf to make it out to all these amazing Indian events.
Friday night was the Canadian Music Awards Show which was held at the Rogers Centre and featured performances by Buffy Saint-Marie, Crystal Shawanda, and Northern Cree.
But for me the best performance was by the awe-inspiring Tanya Tagaq Gillis. Every single time I hear this woman perform, I feel like their is an other-wordly spirit moving through her and then through me. There is something awakened deep within me that is so deeply spiritual and moving. It is an experience like no other. I am usually left with wet eyes, trying to hide them from whomever is next to me because it is hard to explain why I am left in tears by hearing her voice and her performance. I had the pleasure of meeting her at the 4th Annual Awards After Party featuring Digging Roots & Friends.
The after party at the Opera House was amazing. There were over 600 people who came and took part in the big bash of the evening. It was another moment where there were friends whom I haven't seen for a long time in the sea of brown faces. I was told by a non-native attendee that there where actually only a few non-brown faces in the whole crowd. How amazing to gather so many Native people to celebrate our own artists and their many talents.
The talent just kept on going as the next day, Saturday, I went to check out the Manitoba Aboriginal Showcase down at the Docks where I caught dynamic duo JC Campbell and Tracy Bone. They were a delight and a pleasure to watch as the love for each other just oozed out of them. And Tracy's voice is incredible.
Equally incredible is my ability to jump to and fro from event to event. I had to take an intermission from the line-up to attend a friend's birthday party (where there was a live burlesque dancer). Then after that performance I caught up with everyone at Park Lane where Wab Kinew performed earlier along with a fashion show from Northern Styles. So I missed the performances but managed to catch last call to catch up with some new and old peeps.
However, the peeps that I came out to see were the pow wow dancers and the drummers. Somehow with all of my late evenings coupled with a small bit of jet lag, I only made it to the pow wow on Sunday. I felt über-guilty about it all until I spoke to others Sunday evening, many of which had come from other cities to the "pow wow" but were really there for all the other events. Phew, an easing of my guilty conscience by safety in numbers.
And the numbers of Native people who came and joined in the festivities at the 15th Annual Canadian Aboriginal Festival is what makes it matter. After all they are the "largest multi-disciplined Aboriginal arts event in North America." So I can only thank an event like this for creating spaces and places for all those beautiful Native faces.
~The term pow-wow originated from the Algonquian word “pau-wau”, which means he/she dreams.
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Sounds like fun!
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