Andrew Bates, Telegraph-Journal, Local Journalism Initative
The organizers of the first Menahqesk Wabanaki Traditional Powwow at TD Station say they’d spent a lot of time thinking about what could be done at a powwow before being given the reins for this event.
Possesom Paul, CEO of Double Curve Media, said Thursday that they have even more ideas for future events after the first one this past weekend was well-received. Paul said the two-day event on Oct. 26 and 27 averaged between 5,000 and 7,000 visitors, with final numbers not yet available. He said attendees travelled from as far away as Alberta, Michigan and Connecticut to watch performances including dancing and drumming from around 200 performers.
“It’s been amazing, the outpouring of comments and peoples’ opinions on things is outstanding,” Paul said of the response to the event. “This is our first one where we ran the powwow, and to have an outpouring of such nice notes, it’s so beautiful … we were ready for some constructive criticism, but it’s not been anything crazy.”
Paul, 35, of Sitansisk (St. Mary’s) First Nation in the Fredericton area, said the event comes at the end of the powwow season, including events in various communities such as Sitansisk and Elsipogtog First Nation near Moncton. He said the event was unique for its location.
“We had newcomers to city, that this was their first experience with Indigenous people here in Canada, and it was a beautiful opportunity for them to interact,” Paul said. “We had people from Saint John that doesn’t come to our community powwows … it was their ability to reach out and touch it, and have some reality to our existence.
“We’ve been here since time immemorial, so it’s important to us to be able to share our ways of gathering and our ways of being social.”
Menahqesk, at the meeting place of the Wolastoq, or St. John River, and the Bay of Fundy, was traditionally a summer gathering location and trading hub for Indigenous people, Paul said. The Wabanaki Confederacy includes the Wolastoqey, Mi’kmaq, and Peskotomuhkati peoples in New Brunswick as well as the Penobscot and Abenaki peoples in the U.S.
He said he peeked at social media and saw one or two people say “the vibes are immaculate at the powwow, which, what a high praise.” He said there are vendors who say they sold out “within hours of the first day, which is incredible.”
“There was a family that came down from Ontario, and there’s a lot of amazing powwows that happen in Ontario,” he said. “They felt very warm and they felt very hosted and they felt very safe in Saint John.”
Paul, who travelled as a dancer since he was a child, said that his mother had been one of those who helped bring a powwow event to Sitansisk in 2000, and that his career got off the ground thanks to powwows.
“I’ve seen the opportunities that exist of people gathering in this way,” he said. “Projects have lifted off the ground because of powwows, families have started because of powwows … we hope we brought that little bit more to the tapestry of Saint John.”
Mayor Donna Reardon said it was her first powwow and it was “awesome, a great turnout.” She said that she’d spoken to vendors who had told her it was “one of the best ones they’d ever been to.”
“I think it was pretty successful, so I was really happy with it,” Reardon said. “It was pretty impressive … the call of the drums, a lot of people said to me they felt it was an emotional experience for them.”
The event’s head dancers included Chris Sanipass, Donna Augustine, Kyana Kingbird, Bronson Acquin-Mandisodza, Dakota Verner and Peter Watson, who helped lead the various types of dances. While the powwow’s format was traditional, not competitive, there were dance “specials” Saturday night that offered a cash bonus to the winners.
“It was really cool to have all the dancers,” Paul said, saying the arena offered a different setting. “It was a nice way to finish off the year, they felt really special under the lights Saturday.”
Drum groups included host drums Black Bear from Quebec as well as Wabanaki Confederacy, Wolastoq Singers, Sipu Boyz and Muskrat Singers.
Paul said that they have been planning for an annual event, and will be submitting a plan to the city and seeing where that goes.
“We’re just getting our financials and all the paperwork in order now,” he said. “We hope it continues on, I don’t see anything … forecasting that there won’t be a second one.”
Reardon said that the city wants to talk with Double Curve about their plans, saying that there was “good uptake” on sponsorship.
“If they think we could swing it in another year,” she said, saying they would debrief about this event. “If there’s enough of a demand, absolutely.”
Double Curve Media works with 60 to 70 per cent of the powwows and powwow coordinators in the region, Paul said, but hadn’t been asked to run one directly until they were approached by the city’s Kateri Hibbert in December for a meeting.
“To have somebody reach out and ask us to take that position, we’d always talked about it … what would we do in our powwow?” he said, adding they implemented some minor “quality-of-life” changes at this event to make it easier for dancers.
Paul said the group “can do so many other things,” adding that powwow as a cultural form is “traditional and also contemporary,” and there are a lot of possibilities.
“We have a huge list of things we would like to do,” he said.
