The Simpcw First Nation’s annual Honouring Our Young Women Powwow is a special event, because it brings the Powwow to the Simpcw community so members who may not be able to travel much can be included.
“Not everyone gets to go out to other areas. Like our Elders, they can’t always travel that well anymore. That is one of the bigger reasons I would like to see the Powwow in our community,” Shelley Frank said.
Frank is one of the volunteers on the 20th Honouring Our Young Women Powwow committee, which is responsible for organizing an annual community gathering which has returned after pausing during the first years of the pandemic. She has volunteered on the committees for roughly eight years and attended a year before then.
“It was very special,” Frank said. “It brings people together. You see children out dancing, from little babies to teenagers. The drum groups and the drumming is very powerful.”
Another reason Frank volunteers on the committee is because she looks forward to seeing Elders enjoy themselves and socialize with long-time friends they may not have been able to catch up with for a while.
The event is a traditional Powwow, meaning community members will be provided with dinner on Saturday and breakfast on Sunday, she added.
The Powwow usually takes place at the end of April and will be hosted at the Simpcw Gym on Dunn Lake Road from April 29 to April 30 this year. Usually, the Powwow is a three-day event, but the committee decided to host the event on just the Saturday and Sunday to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and the flu.
This Powwow is open to the public and will host vendors from across the province.
“Everyone is welcome, it is a free admission. Everyone in Barriere and the surrounding areas are welcome to come,” Frank said.
Sam Saul and Margaret Joseph were two Simpcw Elders who both passed away in recent years. Their families are hosting two dance specials in memory of the two Elders at the Powwow, who strongly supported the community event during their lives.
The late Saul’s family will host a traditional dance special to remember him, because he was a men’s traditional dancer. The late Joseph’s family will host a berry picking dance special, because she was a women’s traditional dancer who performed it during her life, Frank said.
“She did this dance at our Powwow, and it is quite unique. She has a basket and as she does her dance she is doing the motion of picking berries and putting them into her berry-picking basket.”
The families organizing the dance specials will each choose a dancer to give a prize to, Frank added.
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