UTM hosts third annual All-Nations Powwow
Held on Sisters in Spirit Day, the celebration featured music, dancing, vendors, and prizes.
On October 4, the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) hosted its third annual All-Nations Powwow in the Recreation, Athletics and Wellness Centre (RAWC). The event presented the UTM community with an opportunity to learn about Indigenous cultures through dancing, ceremonies, music, and guided discussions. Organized by UTM’s Office of Indigenous Initiatives (OII), the powwow offered free admission and was open to all.
The event started with a Grand Entry, the traditional opening of a Powwow ceremony. Following the introduction of the flag bearers and powwow participants was a schedule of competitive dances, intertribal dances, and drumming that flowed smoothly. Intertribal dancing was open to everyone in the crowd, including non-Indigenous guests.
Additional events took place throughout the William G. Davis Building, which featured Indigenous-owned businesses selling clothing, jewelry, and other goods, including Illu Kuluapik Creations, Simply Indigenous, Singing Thunder Jewellery, The Red Willow, and many more. There was also a kids’ area that featured colouring pages, a photobooth, a giant floor map of North America that people could walk over, and a visual timeline of events beginning with the first peoples on the continent.
In this year’s powwow schedule, intertribal dancing happened twice, once at 2:30 p.m. and later at 3:30 p.m. Participants were invited to learn basic powwow steps or make up their own. The two special drumming events included Inuit Eastern-Style Drumming at 1:30 p.m. and Water Drumming at 3 p.m. Outside, a firekeeper gave teachings at a sacred fire from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.
The Red Dress Special at 4 p.m. was designed to honour Sisters in Spirit (SIS) Day, which began in 2005. At the Special, dancers of all genders in red regalia were invited to partake.
The Red Dress Special winner was awarded two Pendleton blankets. Other competitive dances included the Men’s Traditional Dance Special at 1 p.m., where winners could get up to C$600 and a jacket, courtesy of the UTM Indigenous Centre. The Jingle Dress Special at 2 p.m. offered the same award system.
Generally, a powwow is a celebration where community members can gather, socialize, and enjoy traditional dancing and singing. Powwows were conducted in secret from 1879 due to the ban on Indigenous cultural ceremonies. Since the 1951 amendments to Canada’s Indian Act, there has been a resurgence of powwows. UTM held its first All-Nations Powwow in the RAWC in March 2023, then its second on North Field in September 2024.
Like last year, this year’s powwow happened in close proximity to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. This is the first year that UTM has hosted a powwow on SIS Day. Both SIS Day and Red Dress Day, which is on May 5, are annual observances to honour the lives of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people (MMIWG2S+).
SIS and Red Dress Day were created to raise awareness of the alarming rates of violence faced by Indigenous women and girls. According to Amnesty International, Indigenous women and girls make up less than 5 per cent of the Canadian population but represent approximately 24 per cent of all homicide victims. They are also 12 times more likely to be murdered, and more than 60 per cent of Indigenous women experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime.
In 2010, Métis artist Jaime Black created the REDress Project, a public art installation project throughout Canada featuring hanging red dresses. The project’s purpose is to draw attention to the high rates of violence against Indigenous women and girls in Canada. Black’s project made the colour red the official colour of the MMIWG2S+ campaign because it’s held in many Indigenous cultures to be the one colour that spirits can see.
The play on words serves as a call to action. ‘Redress’ means to make amends or compensation for a wrong, injury, or injustice, either through the act of setting it right or by providing a remedy.
The project led to the annual Red Dress Day on May 5. Earlier this year, UTM commemorated Red Dress Day by hanging red dresses around campus and hosting a ceremonial fire. The SIS Vigils, along with UTM’s Red Dress Special, eventually adopted Red Dress Day’s powerful red dress symbolism.
