The 2016 school year was closed out in celebration with a year-end Pow Wow that was hosted at Pope John Paul II school on June 15th. Everyone was invited to participate from all school across the Catholic Campus, St. Louis School as well as community and family members.
Aboriginal Resource Teacher, Shelly Tom, talks about the tradition and why it's important. "The year-end pow wow is an important tradition because in previous years it started at Mount Carmel school. According to our culture, once you start something you have to continue the tradition. It's an expectation that someone will carry it on and it will go forward. The pow wow that we are having today is to celebrate the year we had together. This is a fun pow wow. There are no ceremonial things attached to it other than the opening ceremony. Our Elder Dorothy Indian gave us direction to have fun today. She wanted to make sure it was a fun day of celebration for the students and visitors and teachers and anyone else that came out today."
Here is what a few of the dancers from Pope John Paul II School had to say about the experience:
Jocelyn - "Today we are dancing the fancy shall and jingle dress dances. My favorite part of dancing is when I get to dance with my friends in the gym."
Tiana - "Today I'm dancing the jingle dress. At home I have a fancy shawl. My favorite part is when my jingle dress jingles and my heart beats to the drum. It makes me feel proud."
Taya - "I'm dancing with my fancy shawl and I like spinning around and dancing. I learned to dance from my Kokum."
Taylor - "My favorite part of dancing the jingle dress is listing to the sound of the jingles. It makes me feel happy."
Cherrick - "My auntie made my dress for me and she worked hard on my jingles. When I dance I dance for my grandpa. It makes me feel happy to dance for my family."
A very special thank you to the Elder Dorothy Indian from Onigaming First Nation, the Drum Group called the Lake of the Woods Singers from Wauzhushk Onigum and Glen Seymore the MC of the pow wow.