Regaling Our Traditions

Pow Wows are Indigenous celebrations where families, friends and communities come together to enjoy traditional music, dances, regalia and food.

They transcend generations, bringing Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples together to share in culture, celebrate ancestral traditions and provide hope for the future. 

Smaller Indigenous communities often struggle to plan and host their own Pow Wows. The High Prairie Native Friendship Centre and JB Wood Continuing Care Centre joined forces to help bring these celebrations closer to home for small communities. For the past two years, they organized the Honouring our Elders Pow Wow to help members of High Prairie, Alberta who were faced with a large and rapidly aging Indigenous population. This Pow Wow is open to the community and held at a nursing home to ensure vulnerable seniors are easily able to attend. 

The Indigenous Reconciliation Fund (IRF) is providing funds to cover costs associated with artisans and event staff at the third annual Honouring our Elders Pow Wow. This event is extremely beneficial to instilling self-pride and in connecting Indigenous Peoples of all ages with their culture. This event has become a key date marked on the calendars of everyone in the community. This year will mark a historic milestone as local Nations and Indigenous settlements will be invited to join as guests, rather than sponsors.

Although considered a smaller Pow Wow, it holds a large place in the hearts and minds of Indigenous Peoples in High Prairie. For some Indigenous seniors, this is the first Pow Wow they will ever attend due to traumatic experiences in their youth, its meaning impossible to put into words.

Archdiocese of Grouard-McLennan