First Nation Cultural Celebration

On June 11th we held our 4th annual First Nation Cultural Celebration.  We sent invitations to all our students' families through Facebook posts and notes home on Seesaw to come and join us for this event.  We also invited community members who have regalia and dance in pow wows to come join in.  We had many visitors from the Wallaceburg and Bkejwanong communities joining us this day. 






 We were also joined by The Whiteye Singers.  They did a fantastic job drumming and singing all the songs for us this day. 
We were joined by Tyler White from Bkejwanong to be our MC.  He is so generous and always does a great job sharing his knowledge of pow wows and Anishinaabe culture with our staff, students and families.   Miigwech, Tyler!

We had 13 dancers this year!  I believe that it the most we've ever had, and we even had representatives for each style of dance!  


After Grand Entry and demonstrations of each style of dance our A.A. Wright students and staff got a chance to join in!  


 The students dancing got to share their culture with their classmates.  One student dancing said, "I liked it because I got to show my friends how I dance!".  Another student said, "I like our pow wows because I am proud of my culture".  



When organizing an event such as this, it is important to remember to honour your participants.  We made sure to give each dancer a tobacco tie and a gift.  We gave tobacco, a gift and an honorarium to our singers who made the trip to our school.  We also made sure to give our visiting elder, Rita Sands a gift for coming and opening our day with a prayer.  
As always, if you have questions regarding the gifts or tobacco, contact your school board's Indigenous Lead or Special Projects Teacher.



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