eagle feathers

Sarnia Powwow circa 1994

Over the years my mother and I had attended several powwows on Manitoulin Island and in Sarnia. Last Saturday I attended, for the first time, the Pow Wow at the Canadian Aboriginal Festival held at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

Stirring, moving, inspirational and impressive.

I am not aboriginal, though I may have had a great-great-grandmother who was of the Ojibwa tribe. It's one of those uncertainties lost in the uncertainties. My mother's mother always told me when I was very young that her grandmother was the daughter of an Ojibwa chieftain, an Indian princess.

This pleased me to no end, and being a child of nature myself, seemed fitting. It was only after a casual mention as an adult that my grandmother laughed and said she made up the princess designation. I was never sure if she made up the whole history too, but being of longstanding French-Canadian heritage, I believe it is likely that there was an Ojibwa grandmother at some time.

I cannot begin to address the complex issues involving our aboriginal Canadians. I only want to mention a couple of things that struck me anew.

A Ryerson journalism student, Matthew Chung, wrote a fine piece on homosexuality in aboriginal culture. The culture calls gay people "two-spirited", and traditionally they were accepted as someone having both male and female spirits. It's a human way to perceive the reality and a dignified way.

Traditional aboriginal beliefs do have a dignity about them. Another one concerns the eagle feather. The feathers in the powwow dancers' costumes are traditionally eagle feathers. Many are in fact eagle feathers.

If a person sees a feather on the ground that has fallen from a costume, they are not to touch it. Every eagle feather represents the spirit of a warrior. Only a warrior, today, a war veteran, can touch or retrieve the fallen warrior.

On Saturday, after the Grand Entry, when hundreds of dancers moved in winding circles, connecting to the earth and the steady beat of the drums, an eagle's feather was found to have fallen. Four veterans, dressed in traditional finery, danced in the four directions surrounding the feather, at the end retrieving it for its keeper.

Afterward, it is tradition for the eldest veteran to relay a war story. Choosing not to mar the celebration with sadness, this veteran told a story about an enemy soldier coming upon him and his men. Their eyes met, and this enemy soldier had the opportunity to kill them.

But, he did not.