Article content It’s both a homecoming and a welcome to new guests. The 39th Annual Neyaashiinigmiing Traditional Pow Wow at Cape Croker Park combined history, culture, and a market at the powwow grounds on Saturday and throughout the weekend. Some in attendance came from as far away as Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan, returning home for the event.
While others, came to watch and learn. The annual three-day festival featured traditional ceremonies, musical performers, sessions in the teaching tent (including Pow Wow 101), and a community feast. On Saturday, the community’s elders gathered in a tent protected from the steady rainfall.
Those gathered at the powwow were encouraged to speak, ask questions and educate themselves about the area, its people and stories. “I’m glad to see the history is being told. To share our true history.
The history you’ll never see at school. To see the true parts of who we are,” Chippewas of Nawash Chief Greg Nadjiwon said. “We grow stronger when we’re united.
We’re a force to be reckoned with,” he said of the people from the Saugeen Ojibway Nation. The entire event revolves around the drummers and the dancers, literally. The drum tent is in the middle of the grounds, with a dancing ring surrounding it, and the market and vendor tents are at the perimeter of the grounds.
Danielle Jones’ son Declan Abitong turned the dancing ring into a stage. He took second place at the Saugeen First Nation’s competition powwow a we.