A Reflection on an Indigenous Cultural Performance in Toronto, Canada

Collective in nature, cultural performances articulate the community’s unique heritage and tradition. Through these events, cultural identity is strengthened, preserved, and is also transferred to the next generation. They are also a platform for people, not only from the same community but from a different community as well, to have a face-face-interaction with each other. I recently attended one of the Indigenous cultural events in Toronto which helped me get familiar with the culture of the Natives of the land (all my former knowledge on the Indigenous culture came through either books or articles, most which were written by non-indigenous writers or researchers, which Indigenous critics like Lee Maracle call ‘appropriated information’).

I attended The Spirit Pow Wow that was a closing ceremony of the Master Indigenous Games on July 15, 2018 at Downsview Park, Toronto. The event started at noon and dances from different Indigenous communities were performed. Each dance proceeded with a brief introduction of the dance as well as the song from the announcer. Until I watched a few performances, the songs that a group of singers sang sounded similar and most of the dances looked the same. Slowly I started noticing the differences in different dances, some subtle differences and some obvious ones. More interestingly, each dance was a signifier with a completely different signified. For example, the dance by Smoke Trail, which the announcer told in his introduction of the dance, was performed by women in honour of Mother Earth, rivers and so on. Indigenous people are very close to nature and they revere mother Earth, and through dance they try to show their reverence.

The dance I liked was Smoke Dance. Men and women both took part in the dance but their dance patterns were different. Women looked more gracious in their dance moves where as men danced with ‘aggression’ in their moves. Their moves synchronized with the drum beats. One of the senior Indigenous persons I spoke with said in Smoke Dance, drum beats is very important because drum beats symbolize the heart beat of the mother Earth. 

Figure 1. An elderly person in traditional regalia, Nakoda Nation. On both of his arms, armours can be noticed. They, he said, were the protective shield from sword attack or any other attacks.

Figure2: Men and women taking part in Smoke Dance.

Watching the Native people as young as 4, clad in varied cultural regalia, dance was a unique experience for me.

Figure 3: Indigenous people dancing wearing Eagle Feather regalia

The dance that followed was even more beautiful primarily because the regalia were heavier and more beautiful. View of men dancing with wearing eagle feather headdress and hawk feather bustle was spectacular (Figure 3). The announcer of the event gave a very brief information about the dance and the regalia. He said the dance by the men wearing eagle feather regalia tells the story of sobriety, dignity and heroism exhibited by the great indigenous warriors of the past.

It was interesting to observe the Jingle Break Dance which is believed by Indigenous people to have healing power. Before the actual dance started, a brief introduction was given for the audience. The dance, it was told, has therapeutic effect and has the power for spiritual healing. For a person to have the healing, the dancer has to be given a pinch of tobacco. Once a pinch of tobacco is shared with one of the dancers, she will dance for the tobacco giver and her dance is believed to heal the trauma or stress of the tobacco giver. Tobacco, thus, seems to play a key role in Indigenous community. However, this tobacco they share is not abusive and non-toxic. I shared tobacco (figure 4) with one of the dancers (figure 5) and told her my problem. She danced for me. 

Figure 4: A pouch with tobacco inside.

While watching the lady dance for the healing of my stress, I recalled the alarming data suicide rate among the Native youths presented by Senator Murray Sinclair in one of the videos. A question came to my mind: are the Native even aware of this alternative healing method any longer? What the society seems to have forgotten is modern medical science can heal the physical wound but there are so many wounds which can be healed alternatively. Healing is possible through the music, dance, and other art forms.
It is important to note that Indigenous society is not homogenous. Different Nations have their own regalia, dance forms and belief systems. A Mohawk person had noticeably different regalia than the Métis person. For instance, the number of feather in Mohawk headdress and another Nation was different.

Figure 5: The Jingle Break dancer with whom I shared the tobacco and who danced to heal the trauma inside me.

I had a conversation with one of the Pow Wow dancers. I asked him to explain the importance of Pow Wow in the Indigenous community.  In a jocular way, he defined Pow Wow as a kind of Facebook and said all people are bound by Pow Wow even though Pow Wow itself is not homogenous cultural performance. Different Nations have different variations of the Pow Wow dances.

These cultural performances, along with many other Indigenous things, had been outlawed by government of Canada in 1876. The Indian Act outlawed the traditional ceremonies and cultural performances that form the core of Native Identity and heritage. It put prohibitions on dancing claiming that those cultural performances were not the part of civilized processes.  Now that Canada is one of the signatories of United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the cultural performances and events have been encouraged and promoted. While watching the Pow Wow, I wondered how wonderful Canada would have become if Indian Act had not been promulgated and the Indigenous culture had not been dismissed as ‘uncivilised.