Celebrating Indigenous culture

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This article was published 29/01/2018 (2832 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As the drumming and dancing carried on in the Manitoba Room of the Keystone Centre on Saturday, Wes Nelson sat in a chair beside a row of bleachers and got prepared for the powwow.

Dressed in a traditional outfit, and surrounded by dozens of other dancers, Nelson was ready to do his part at the Dakota Nation Winterfest.

“It’s one of the ways we’re reigniting our culture and our spirituality as Indigenous people,” he said.

This year’s Dakota Nation Winterfest saw thousands of people, both young and old, flock to the Keystone Centre over the weekend.

Hosted by Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, the yearly festival served as the meeting ground for a wide range of sports and other events, from drumming, to hockey, basketball, dancing and more.

Nelson, an Indigenous man from northwestern Ontario, tries to make it to the annual winter festival each year, not only to dance in the powwow, but to see some familiar faces along the way.

“They’re coming from all four directions,” Nelson said, from Saskatchewan to Alberta, to Ontario and Minnesota.

But beyond the friendships that are made, for Nelson, Winterfest is a chance for people, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike, to share with one another in song, food and dance.

As a game of bingo carried on in one corner of the building, over in another, several games of volleyball were being played at once, while down the hall, young children could be seen practising their square-dancing routines.

Winterfest has been in existence since the late 1990s, but for some, it has become something of an annual tradition dating back at least a decade.

Gilbert Longclaws has been coming to Winterfest for nearly 10 years and drove in from Waywayseecappo early Saturday morning.

He joined a group of other men at one of the many drums placed around Saturday’s powwow and said he comes to Winterfest for the singing and dancing.

“Even though the weather was bad, I made it here anyway,” he said.

But for Longclaws, Winterfest is also a chance to see old friends of his throughout the weekend.

This chance to rekindle old friendships appeared to be a common theme throughout and the communal aspect behind Winterfest was certainly not lost on Chris Constant, a former hockey player who played a few seasons for the Brandon Wheat Kings between 1989 to 1992.

“It’s a celebration of us natives getting together … as one huge family,” he said.

Standing outside the Enns Brothers Arena, Constant, who coaches hockey in his hometown of The Pas, said every year at Winterfest, he will see an old face that he hasn’t come across in a while.

And with a slew of events scattered throughout the Keystone Centre, the weekend proved to be a special moment for Constant.

“What more could you ask for?” Constant said.

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