Shoot With The Heart
This all started with a friend, Tom, insisting that I go to a Pow Wow and Rodeo at the local Tsuut’ina Reservation. I went 5 hours before the event hoping to meet some of the participants and document their stories. Not usually finding inspiration to free my camera from its bag with the city I live in, I decided to take a chance. Now I am hooked and try to make any Pow Wows that are close enough to drive to. Over time, I begin to meet these competitors and cultural ambassadors and some have come to recognize me as well.
Who would have guessed that this would be so inspiring to me and my camera? I always thought that finding people of this kind of character, depth of pride and connection to their own history was something you had to travel far to see. I was wrong in the most spectacular way.
Not in any of my travels have a met a more giving culture as is North America’s “originals”. You can feel the fight in each of them to maintain a culture that is not protected by law or maybe not even encouraged by the greater population. They are giving of their information and trusting to a fault. They enjoy the exchanges in sharing their religion and memories. Philosophy comes naturally and intellectual thought comes with a healthy side of respect.
The Pow Wow is a gathering in as much as it brings people throughout North America to compete in dancing, regalia (costume) and music. You can try authentic Native American foods and listen to their drumming and singing. The colours are jarring and lurid. The drum beats paint a pastiche of the past that flashes through the mind. An easier time with a symbiotic relationship with nature and a person’s own being.
My own idea of what it is to be Canadian has changed irreversibly. These events bring me to an understanding of what it is to belong to a place, a nationality. It presents me with a story that is all our own as Canadians and not a replication of our Southern neighbour. It makes me want to discover my own differences from the world.
Lastly, I think of ways in which this culture doesn’t need to be assimilated in any way. It should be able to survive, but may need help in doing so. Every North American must be proud of this culture and encourage its growth and prosperity. Equally, the indigenous populations need to establish their place and find ways to show their own pride, not just to other indigenous persons, but to their brothers up and down the continent and those in the rest of the world. There is so much more that you can teach us!