Family Drum Social

On the evening of March 27th, we again invited families to A.A. Wright to experience Anishinaabe culture.  We started the evening by sharing a meal (very important after a long day of school and work!) and joined Cecil Isaac in our Learning Commons.  He shared teachings on the importance of our drums and why we need to take good care of them.  We then made our drumsticks and were ready to proceed with our drum awakening ceremony. 
 


Our group had made 20 drums together and it was great to see them all together and ready to be feasted and sounded.  Cecil brings much knowledge to our school and it was great to learn about the traditions of the Anishinaabe and the importance of the drum in Ojibwe culture. 


Each drum was feasted by a child and given a drink of water.  After this, each child got to stand up with their drum and play it to the 4 directions and let out their own "whoop". It was amazing to see the pride that each child had when striking their drum and saying "Miigwech".  

After the ceremony we were joined by many more families, grandmas, grandpas, uncles, friends and even friends from other schools for a drum social.  We were joined by friends from Walpole Island First Nation as well as our town of Wallaceburg.  It was great to bring together our communities this evening We had over 80 people in our learning commons for this special event!

 We had aunties, uncles, dads and cousins lead us in songs and dances and we had a really great time! 


Now that so many members of our A.A. Wright family have their own hand drums we look forward to hosting more family drums socials in the future!

 It is important to note that drums are a very sacred part of Anishinaabe culture.  If you are interested in learning about drums, making drums, or holding drum socials at your own school it is important to include an Indigenous elder or knowledge keeper in the process.  I'd recommend contacting your school board's Indigenous Lead or Indigenous Education Special Projects Teacher to give you more information. 

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