Police honour North Enders with spring feast

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This article was published 07/04/2017 (3134 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Not many Ukrainian kids can say they grew up to be called by the spirit name “White Wolf.”

But Rick Kosowan, who grew up in Point Douglas, earned it by attending sweat lodges and healing circles — then, in his role as police officer, throwing a giant feast each year for the North End community.

Winnipeg police have carried on the tradition.

On Friday afternoon at the Indian and Métis Friendship Centre, they hosted the 21st annual Winnipeg Police Service North End Spring Feast.

Close to 700 people turned out for the free event in which 25 police officers set up, served and washed up.

They also raised money leading up to the event.

Several dignitaries were also present, such as Winnipeg police Chief Danny Smyth and members of the Bear Clan Patrol.

The meal of stew, bannock, fruit and cake was prepared by students in the R. B. Russell culinary arts program.

Kosowan, 62 and now retired, described attending the feast Friday as “emotional.”

Kosowan said he and fellow constable Willie Ducharme, now deceased, had no inkling when they started the feast that it would become an annual event.

Ducharme’s spirit name was Big Kind-Hearted Bear. The names had come to native elder Art Shofley in a dream.

But when Kosowan and Ducharme started community policing in the mid-1990s, they were given less complimentary names, usually shouted at them by people who were running away.

“There was a lot of mistrust,” Kosowan said.

The community policing movement was just starting, and Kosowan and Ducharme went out of their way to immerse themselves in the local culture to get to know the people they served.

“We learned about restorative justice,” Kosowan recalled. “We became fire keepers for a sweat lodge.”

It was Shofley, now living in Abbotsford, B.C., who mentioned to them that the warriors of a tribe would throw feasts for the people they protected. Thus, the first North End spring feast was born.

“It’s continuing on. It’s been recognized by the other officers, and it’s been recognized by every police chief, as something that’s important to continue,” Shofley said.

Aboriginal elder Madeline Hatch, originally from Sandy Bay First Nation, said people get to see the human side of police instead of always blaming them.

“I love it,” said Hatch, who recited an opening prayer before the meal.

“It’s good because the police show they care about the community. The police and community have to learn to get along.”

Carol Fowler has lived off and on at Siloam Mission for the past five years and was attending her first feast.

She went alone but took a book, Disasters of Western Canada: Courage Amidst the Chaos, by Tony Hollihan.

She appreciated the meal but felt police should stick to their regular jobs. “They should keep being police, not waiters and waitresses,” she said.

Most of the event was paid for by sponsors and the food was donated.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca