Native Nations Pow Wow
Today we’ve been to a fabulous Native American Pow Wow with the home ed group at the Norwich showground. It was done by the Native Nations Dance Theater group who came over from the States - there were I think 10 of them, representing 16 native nations in all. We started with a display of different dances, flute playing and singing. Their "regalia" and dances were from several different tribes and regions and I would have loved to have found out much more detail about the origins of the dances and details of what they were wearing, but it was aimed at mid primary level (I’d guess from the school children there) and didn’t get too deep.
Then we split into 3 groups and rotated around sessions on hoop dancing (what he could do with bendy hoops was awesome LOL), circle dancing and story telling, with a long lunch break. We didn’t get to hear any stories in the storytelling because that session was cut short because of time and we’d spent so long looking in the tipee and asking other questions they didn’t get started. During the circle dancing M joined in and looked to be having an excellent time.
During lunch we looked at some handicragts the group had out for sale from their tribes or made by themselves or their families. M chose a necklace made from a leather thong and a piece of wampum to buy with his pocket money. He chatted with one of the men about wampum and had his picture taken - all the people we spoke to were really friendly.
I found the would-be storytelling session the most interesting because we got to speak to a couple of people in more detail. The elder lady spoke about her dancing competitions, and told us more about her regalia. She had a fan made out of imitation eagle feathers (large white turkey feathers painted dark brown at the ends) because if she had brought her proper feathers they would be confiscated by customs on leaving the UK. The real feathers are sacred to her people and no one else can touch them and they are not allowed to touch the floor. Feathers and other items of regalia are gifted down through the generations and held in high esteeem. She also spoke about the Seminole tribe which was really interesting.
Lots more to blog from last week but posts are still in draft til I finish them. I’ll post them in date order as I get them done.
Looks absolutely amazing! You lucky lot!
Comment by Tech — June 21, 2006 @ 9:28 pm
wow - sounds great
Comment by HelenHaricot — June 21, 2006 @ 10:15 pm
Looks fascinating! I see from their website they just say they are currently on a European tour - not very helpful! So I have e-mailed and asked for forthcoming UK dates - I’d love to go. Thanks for the link!
Comment by Joanna — June 22, 2006 @ 9:34 am
Thank you for the article and exposure. We did have a good time during the powwows we put on for the schools at the Norfolk show grounds. The children were just excellent and they really seemed to get the point that “We (indigenous North American Indian people) are still alive and we want to share it with the world”. We will come back to England to perform for more schools. If you are a head master/teacher and you would like us to come to perform please contact Vaughnda Hilton, the director of NNDT at (215) 472-9996 or email vaughnda@nativeweb.net for next year’s tour. Thank you we had a great time and we would love to come back in the future to share more our stay was very brief but very meaningful and memorable. Aho
Comment by Vaughnda Hilton — July 25, 2006 @ 10:28 pm