Mawita’jik Competition Pow Wow 2022 brings First Nations dancers, drummers to N.S.
Global News
The competition pow wow called Mawita'jik -- meaning ‘let us gather’ in Mi’kmaw – brought performers from about 15 nations, from as far as North Dakota.
Hundreds of First Nation dancers, singers and drummers are gathering for the 2022 Mawita’jik Competition Pow Wow held on Mi’kma’ki in Nova Scotia.
Mawita’jik, meaning ‘let us gather’ in Mi’kmaw, brought performers from about 15 nations, from as far as North Dakota.
The competition kicked off at noon on Saturday with the grand entry where all nations and dancers were introduced.
Garrett Gloade of Millbrook First Nation, the competition coordinator, says powwows are “a way for our people to gather and celebrate for who we are as Indigenous people.”
Gloade said, “That grand entry was something that was done very negatively back in the day. People would parade our people down the streets in the old saloon towns. With our people, anything that’s negative we turn it into a positive.”
“Where you bring all the colours together, and they all dance together simultaneously in one mind, one body, one spirit. That drum that comes in and brings us in, that’s a symbol of mother earth, and when we sing our voices carry upward to the creator,” he said. “Whether it’s our own personal need, or prayer or what have you, we all have our reason.”
Traditional Indigenous dances were banned in Canada beginning between the 1850s and 1951.
Patricia Saulis of Tobique First Nation, a traditional dancer, said that’s why she loves it so much.
