There was recently a pow wow at the Sheraton Centre in the main ballroom. It was part of a conference field there.
It is significant for me, because I see the progression and acceptance, if you will, of our culture as native people.
t is an impressive room with big chandeliers, wall-to-wall carpeting, silver pots for the coffee. It’s not so much the pow wow itself but where it was. The sense of pride I had was overwhelming as they did the Grand Entry. Especially with the people there. The people there had healed themselves and they carried with them our Indianness. Something which is lost when one needs healing.
The pow wow was at the end of a conference organized by the National Association for Native American Children of Alcoholics, which is an organization dedicated to healing the multi-generational effects of substance abuse.
The love permeated throughout the room. There were some visitors who looked like they had never attended a pow wow before. They got to see the beautiful side of who native people are. There was a room full of people who a short while ago were, sorry to put it bluntly, drunks. And here they were now, healed or struggling to heal.
The Mohawk hosts from Kahnawake were great. There was a contingent from the Longhouse. They shared stories, prayers and dances. The social dances got the crowd involved. The power and the feeling in that ballroom were overwhelming. Sometimes we might take different aspects of our culture for granted when they are in their usual places. But here we were in the freakin’ Sheraton fora powwow. It was special.
It was the same feeling in the student union building. There was a Native awareness week put on by the students at McGill in 1991. Unaware of the protocol, the organizers had planned to have the drummers play in a bar, but the drum group said they couldn’t perform in a room where alcohol was being served. Sothey scrambled to find another room. The only one they could find was in the basement. But it didn’t matter. The same feelings were in there.
But I thought how unfortunate that more couldn’t learn or participate.
And here we are in the ballroom.
People from all over were there. I met a Cree from Montana, whose language sounded very similar to ours. The feeling one gets as a native or non-native during those happenings, whether they are back home, or at the ballroom or in the basement for that matter, is special.
And from my observations we have begun to conquer. We have begun to conquer, with our hearts, with our love, patience and wisdom. The healing with native people was only the first step of many. Now we can begin to conquer.
Not by “packing heat” but by spreading the word. Only when we start using our minds, words and actions and most
of all our spirit can we begin to make a difference. It’s starting.
