{"id":17398,"date":"2017-05-31T12:07:01","date_gmt":"2017-05-31T16:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=17398"},"modified":"2017-06-07T16:04:28","modified_gmt":"2017-06-07T20:04:28","slug":"saturdays-powwow-will-signal-new-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/saturdays-powwow-will-signal-new-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday’s Powwow will signal new beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Footprints often show where we\u2019ve been but this Saturday footprints will show where we\u2019re going as Indigenous Leaders converge on Aurora to usher in a new beginning.
\nAs Indigenous elders, dancers and singers prepare to make their Grand Entrance at 12 noon for the New Beginnings Powwow at Lambert Wilson Park, youngsters will be putting their creativity to work creating their own set of footprints. For Powwow organizer Rod Nettagog, it is symbolic of walking together and a way forward on a healing journey that is long overdue.
\nThe June 3 Powwow, a hallmark of Aurora\u2019s Canada 150 Celebrations, was initially proposed to mark the sesquicentennial of Canada\u2019s celebration, but it has taken on a much deeper meaning, one of Truth and Reconciliation led by Canada\u2019s First Nations.
\n\u201cIt is a dark past and this powwow is about moving forward,\u201d he explains of New Beginning. \u201cNow it is time to move forward with reconciliation and bringing that understanding and awareness about our people and to learn and appreciate who we are as First Nations because this is Canada. I think everyone needs to know the true history of this country before European contact. Part of that is the powwow.
\n\u201cIt is a celebration, a time of singing and dancing and expressing who we are as indigenous people and welcome people into the circle to dance with us, to celebrate with us. That is what this time represents: a time to move forward. We can\u2019t forget about the past, but we need to move forward and to learn to forgive. We need to accept each other as brothers and sisters on Mother Earth.\u201d
\nWhen asked what Canada 150 means to him, Mr. Nettagog answers the question with a question: 150 years of what?
\nCanada, he says, was founded on genocide and the forced removal of their land and trees. Now, he says, they are left with about two per cent of the land with boil water advisories in their own communities.
\n\u201cWhere is the equity in that?\u201d he asks. \u201cThese issues need to be addressed and talked about [so] Canada has an understanding of where indigenous people are and still being treated today.\u201d
\nFostering this understanding is a key component stemming from the report of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission, which was intended to be a comprehensive response to address the Residential School system, the effects of which are still being felt today. One such effect was the attempted suppression of indigenous culture, forbidding traditional languages, traditions and celebrations.
\nSince then, there has been a concerted effort to re-learn these traditions and, most importantly, re-claim identity.
\nThat being said, along the way, there have been \u2013 and continue to be \u2013 significant misconceptions to address, one of the most evident of which is cultural appropriation. You only have to look as far as a festival to see non-indigenous people walking around with makeshift feather headdresses to get a flavour of cultural appropriation, which Mr. Nettagog says is a \u201cmockery.\u201d
\nWith that in mind, it was important to set the right tone in deciding Saturday\u2019s craft program. Working on a theme of inclusion, organizers settled on creating footprints to represent the path moving forward, along with representation of the traditional medicine wheel to show \u201cthe different races of Mother Earth and how we all have those gifts we bring within that circle, we are respecting each other, and walking together.\u201d
\n\u201cWe are all human beings,\u201d says Mr. Nettagog. \u201cWe need to treat each other as human beings, and I think not a lot of people are aware of that.\u201d
\nSurveying where this relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians stands after 150 years, Mr. Nettagog said he would like to see \u201cmore awareness\u201d generated over the next 50 years ahead of the 200th anniversary of Confederation.\u201d
\n\u201cIt is going to take a long time,\u201d he says. \u201cThey say it will take a lot of years to get back to where we were as Indigenous people and take those responsibilities back of learning the ceremonies, the songs and the dances because a lot of that was lost through the residential school system and it affected everybody in so many different ways. There are a lot of people out there who aren\u2019t even aware of the effects it had on a lot of us.
\n\u201cThere needs to be that understanding of why we\u2019re out there still fighting for our rights as Indigenous peoples because we want to have clean drinking water as everyone else does. We want to have the same healthcare and education as everyone else across the board. It doesn\u2019t really matter how many people show on Saturday; [success is] the fact that this is happening for the first time in Aurora and that is success. It is getting that word out there. It\u2019s a time of celebration and a time of song and dance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New Beginnings Powwow will take place at Lambert Willson Park (135 Industrial Parkway North) this Saturday, June 3, from 12 noon until 9 p.m. Events get underway with the Grand Entry at 12 noon, festivities and activities from 1 \u2013 5 p.m., a feast from 5 \u2013 7 p.m., and closing ceremonies beginning at 7 p.m. The Powwow will feature craft and food vendors each with Indigenous roots. Admission is free, but attendees are asked to leave their pets at home (Service animals exempt). For more, visit aurora.ca\/powwow. <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Footprints often show where we\u2019ve been but this Saturday footprints will show where we\u2019re going as Indigenous Leaders converge on Aurora to usher in a new beginning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/2017-06-01-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4wC","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-24 09:40:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}