Workshops, dance lessons part of first Pembina Trails community powwow

The Pembina Trails School Division put its own spin on the end-of-the-year powwow this year by facilitating regalia-building workshops and dance lessons beforehand.

This spring, for the first time, every division in Winnipeg is hosting a ceremony to celebrate First Nations dancing, singing and feasting.

“It is an expression of healing and connection and togetherness for everybody,” said Shawna Nagler, a vice-principal who helped organize the inaugural powwow in Pembina Trails — the last division to adopt the annual tradition.

School leaders and Makoon Transition Inc. organized a pipe ceremony, feast and grand entry at Fort Richmond Collegiate on Wednesday.

Makoon provides housing and cultural reunification services for families transitioning out of the child welfare system.

Founder Kendra Inglis had to move the facility from central Winnipeg in 2023 and, with little notice, relocate roughly 100 students and their caregivers to the south end.

Inglis said the powwow is an extension of efforts to build relationships between families — many of whom have had negative experiences with the school system — and Pembina Trails.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for the kids and the parents to reconnect with their culture. A lot of parents lost their way in addiction and homelessness and it’s a great experience for them to come together in a good way and celebrate,” she added.

The partners secured about $60,000 from the Winnipeg Foundation to prepare for and put on a powwow this year.

Indigenous students make up 11 per cent of the overall population in the division. They represent a quarter of children who attend Arthur A. Leach School.

Nagler described the south end as “a cultural desert.”

That’s one of the reasons why, ahead of the powwow, the division brought in instructors to run free jingle, fancy shawl, chicken and grass dance lessons.

It also hosted crafting sessions for families at Arthur A. Leach and Bonnycastle schools — learning hubs for Makoon students — to make their own regalia.

Powwow organizers anticipated about 500 attendees on Wednesday.

The Seven Oaks School Division, which began the end-of-the-year powwow trend in 2010, expects 4,000 at its 17th annual event on June 4.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca