‘Honouring the land’ means something different, and yet similar, to those attending Saturday’s Georgian College Traditional Pow Wow.
The 17th annual pow wow’s theme hit home with people from many backgrounds.
Bianca Cestaro, an office administration and heath services student in her second semester at Georgian, hails form Brazil.
“We also have a lot of diverse native populations in my country, and honouring the land, for me, is when we never forget history, because we know that we are privileged to be on this land, because so many things happened in the past,” she said. “Unfortunately, so many people were removed from their lands so that we could be here.
“To me, honouring the land is even though there’s nothing I can do about it, I wasn’t here, but I should at least remember everything and be respectful and grateful that I am able to be here,” she added, “and not take anything for granted, and respect nature and the original peoples as much as I can.”
Shawn Corbiere, of Waubaushene, is a flint knapper who carves arrowheads out of antlers, attaches them to carbon arrows and an atlatl, similar to a bow, to make an ancient hunting weapon.
“Honouring the land, to me, means land-based learning opportunities for our European-cultured people that don’t know about it,” he said, “so it teaches them some of the tools that we made, our traditions that we have.”
Ken Geroux, of Barrie, is one of the founders of the Barrie Native Friendship Centre.
“She (the land) prepares everything for us. Everything that we use, we get it from Mother Earth,” he said.
Geroux noted most people don’t understand this.
“No, because they abuse it. You look around and see the garbage they throw on our land. It’s sad. There’s no respect,” he said. “They have no respect for the Earth, what she does, how much she provides for us, all the medicines and all the food and vegetables that she does.”
Carter Gelinas is a Cobourg native who now lives in Barrie.
“To me, it means paying tribute to the traditions that existed before the culture that was imposed in the last 500 years onto this land, and paying respect to the people in the society that came before this one,” he said.
“Honouring that is respecting the fact that people were here before and they had an entirely different system of beliefs, of society.”
Melissa Greenbird is a hoop dancer from Walpole Island who has attended all 17 pow wows at Georgian College.
“Our ancestors were struggling in our history, so we have to take care of our Mother Earth,” she said. “(That means) not taking resources more than what we need — like food, like when we go hunting.”
Rob Spade, a dancer at the pow wow, hails from northern Ontario.
“Everything you do as a person, whether you honour yourself by being your true self or pretending, it’s up to you, but live strong,” he said. “The Earth is here. It supports you every day. You’re standing on it. The rest is up to you.”
The pow wow is taking place at the Georgian College Barrie campus athletic centre until 8:30 p.m. tonight.