{"id":23868,"date":"2019-05-30T17:04:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-30T21:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23868"},"modified":"2019-06-05T20:14:18","modified_gmt":"2019-06-06T00:14:18","slug":"new-beginnings-pow-wow-returns-to-aurora-on-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/new-beginnings-pow-wow-returns-to-aurora-on-saturday\/","title":{"rendered":"New Beginnings Pow Wow returns to Aurora on Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

New Beginnings is set to become a storied tradition as\nAurora prepares to welcome the third annual New Beginnings Pow Wow this\nSaturday, June 1, at 12 noon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Beginnings is a celebration and showcase of\nIndigenous food, dance and culture that will run from 12 noon until 9 p.m. with\nthis year\u2019s theme being Honouring Our Elders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poe Wows promote cultural pride in an inclusive setting\nand play an important role in many Indigenous peoples\u2019 lives, according to the\nTown, and they serve as a forum to share indigenous heritage with surrounding\ncommunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Events will begin at Lambert Willson Park, located just\nbehind the Aurora Family Leisure Complex, with a Grand Entry at noon. The grand\nentry is a ceremonial feature of the event, which will include dignitaries,\nincluding participating chiefs, followed by dancers and other performers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the Grand Entry, festivities will run from 1 \u2013\n5 p.m., featuring a variety of dances grouped according to their cultural\ngenres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Feast will take place between 5 and 7 p.m. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is where all the dancers, all the participants, all\nthose involved have a reflective time,\u201d explains Shelley Ware, Special Events\nCoordinator for the Town of Aurora. \u201cThey eat, they recharge their energies\nand, in my non-Indigenous terms, it\u2019s like a time out: they get rested, ready\nto go, and start more dancing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In between, the Town will host make-and-take Indigenous\ncrafts, while Indigenous vendors will be on hand throughout the afternoon and\nevening selling artwork, cards, jewellery and other traditional crafts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also going on throughout the Pow Wow is a sacred fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is a small fire, but there are specific protocols to\ngo with it,\u201d says Ms. Ware. \u201cThe purpose is to provide time for a person to\nreflect and in the Indigenous culture, they would call upon supports from\ngroups they rely on. It\u2019s neat being a non-Indigenous person to participate in\nwalking around the circle of the sacred fire. I don\u2019t know what it is, but from\npersonal experience, I feel there is something you do feel participating in\nthat element.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you walk around the sacred fire, it is a time to\nreflect just on your own energy at that time, your own troubles, your own\nthoughts; in our day and age now, even today, are we setting aside time to\nactually have time for personal reflection and self care? We\u2019re such a busy\nculture that some of these elements I don\u2019t think we pay enough attention to.\nFrom that perspective, I think we have a lot to learn from this culture, as we\ndo many, many other cultures. There is a lot they can teach us that we would\nbenefit from.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as much as learning will take place on site, if you\nare planning to attend, there are a few pieces of protocol and tradition you\nshould be aware of. This is an event unlike many others hosted by the Town of\nAurora. Typically you can take photos of just about anything at a Town event,\nbut here it is a traditional requirement to ask permissions of the dancers\nbefore taking their photo dressed in their regalia. It is up to the dancer to\nchoose whether or not it is appropriate at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is also one of the few events where dogs, with the\nexception of service animals, are not allowed due to the traditional customs of\nthe Pow Wow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy more people attending it, more people getting\ninvolved, it strengthens the experience as well as our understanding in terms\nof the important roles for a variety of cultural practices that play within\nmany Indigenous lives,\u201d says Ms. Ware. \u201cNo matter how busy everyone is this\nweekend with the Aurora Chamber Street Festival on Sunday and so much going on,\ncommit to yourself to spend some time checking out the Pow Wow. It only happens\nonce a year and it is something I really encourage you to experience because it\nis something very special and very different.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New Beginnings Pow Wow\u2019s host drum is Bluestone, with\nHead Male Dancer and Grass Dance Special by Farley Eaglespeaker, and Head\nFemale Dancer Pam Plain. The White Pine Dancers also welcome all nations to\nparticipate as a vendor or dancer. If you are interested in participating contact\nRod Nettagog at bluestonecloud@hotmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on the event, visit aurora.ca\/powwow\nor call the 905-726-4762.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

w Beginnings is set to become a storied tradition as Aurora prepares to welcome the third annual New Beginnings Pow Wow this Saturday, June 1, at 12 noon. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6cY","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 13:51:26","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\/23868","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=23868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23868\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}