‘In the path of our ancestors’: Indian Horse Relay closes annual Manito Ahbee festival

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This article was published 22/05/2023 (878 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With his one-year-old son on his shoulders, smiling, Toby Bear stands up against the fence at the front of the race track, taking in the action.

“There they go!” he exclaims, as a clatter of hooves batter the dirt track a few feet away. Riding bareback, without saddles, young racers coral horses painted with traditional designs. At each leg of the race, they swiftly and carefully dismount and hand off the horse to another rider to continue the relay, aiming for as seamless a transition as possible.

Bear raises his arms up to cheer, and his toddler does the same. Behind them, more than a hundred spectators are focused on the second annual Indian Horse Relay at Assiniboia Downs, the last event of the 18th Manito Ahbee Festival, which wrapped up Monday.

“This is my second time here, and I enjoy it. It’s really cool,” said Bear, a Winnipeg resident, as he gestured to his contented son, also named Toby. “This is his second time, too.”

Their family, like many others, plans to attend the event every year.

Manito Ahbee, the five-day celebration of Indigenous cultures happened in person for the second year since its pandemic hiatus, which forced programming to go virtual instead. This year’s festival included a “next gen” gathering for youth that brought together 2,500 young people, and a powwow that featured dancers from across Canada and as far away as Australia.

Festival executive director Lisa Meeches said total turnout numbers aren’t expected to be available until next week, but said people attended from many First Nations in Manitoba and elsewhere, and the event also brought together international visitors, non-Indigenous people and newcomers to Canada.

“If we base it just on ticket sales alone, I think that would be unfair, because it’s intangible what you feel here,” Meeches said. “It’s an intangible feeling when you see other nations mixing and mingling with our allies. It’s just been a wonderful mix of groups… every nation that could be represented on Turtle Island, they visited this past weekend.”

Just as the festival’s name derives from the Ojibwe word for a sacred site, the events aim to “emulate the spirit of the sacred site,” Meeches said, by showcasing culturally significant activities and bringing joy to people.

“We feel that we are walking in the path of our ancestors, and this is exactly where they want us to be at this time — and that’s in victory mode,” she said.

Several attendees described the good vibes they got from being at the festival over the long weekend and watching a rejuvenation of Indian horse racing in Manitoba.

“It’s definitely a beautiful experience to be back with our family and our extended family,” said Tasha Spillett-Sumner, with three-year-old daughter Isabella Sumner in tow.

Post-COVID-19 restrictions, seeing the large powwow dances again was a powerful part of the festival, said Teegan Delorme, who works for Treaty 2.

“It’s really nice to see all of our different Treaty nations come together, especially for such a big event,” she said.

For horse race enthusiasts like Brian Austfjord, Monday’s event was “true horsemanship.” The Gimli resident said he was happy to see Indigenous riders getting recognition in a relay sport he’d previously only seen on TV.

“To see them pass that baton at 30 miles an hour, with no saddle! Wow, that’s horsemanship, that’s skill,” he said. “The raw intensity of it… don’t blink, you’re gonna miss it,” he added. “And it’s a perfect day for it.”

katie.may@winnipegfreepress.com