Garden River First Nation kicked off its annual pow wow Saturday after having to cancel last year’s event due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first day of the two-day event was well-attended, as many people braved the heat to take in drumming, dancing and craft vendors at the community ballpark.
“Oh, it feels great. I think all of us have been through some tough times over the last year-and-a-half. Our community, many other communities, the entire world has been going through some struggles dealing with the pandemic,” said Garden River First Nation Chief Andy Rickard, speaking with SooToday at the pow wow grounds Saturday. “Based on things kind of lightening up a little bit, or loosening up in terms of restrictions, we just felt it would be a good opportunity to see if we can try hosting our annual pow wow that we normally would have every summer, with all the proper precautions, all the plans in place in relation to COVID and all that kind of stuff, so we thought it would just be a good opportunity to bring our people together.”
This year’s theme is ‘honouring the children of residential school’ in light of the ongoing discoveries of what are believed to be unmarked graves in and around sites of former residential schools across Canada. Rickard says that many community members have been dealing with mental health impacts associated with the discoveries on top of dealing with the pandemic.
“Chief Shingwauk was from our community, and he had visions of a teaching wigwam for our people. Obviously that idea was skewed along the way, and it turned out to be something that he never envisioned,” said Rickard. “We have a lot of thoughts about Garden River being a part of that process - how do we look at what’s happening here, how do we be a part of that process to ensure that we also help with uncovering some of those children that have been lost from their communities.”
“We understand the importance of actually bringing these young children home back to their communities, because we want to ensure that they’re resting, that they’re in a good place, that their families know they’re going to be resting in their own community. So, a lot of that work is what we felt would be important as well, just based on our connection to Shingwauk Residential School.”
Chief Rickard credits the work of the First Nation’s health and wellness department and its pandemic response team for getting the majority of community members vaccinated and developing pandemic-related health and safety guidelines in order to protect Garden River citizens.
“We just felt that everything was in place for us to have a responsible celebration like this,” Rickard said.
The pow wow continues Sunday with grand entry beginning at approximately 1 p.m.