Ottawa’s annual Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival welcomed large crowds to four-days of celebration and education. Running from June 21 to 24, people gathered at Vincent Massey Park to watch performances, sample food, and browse traditional Indigenous wares.
Tori McLeod, a festival volunteer, said there was a diverse range of people visiting, and that many came with a sense of curiosity.
“I’ve had people asking, ‘if I really want to learn the culture, what should I do?’” said McLeod, who recommended talking to the vendors selling traditional medicines.
She added that vendors were happy to explain the medicines, and the culture they originated from.
The festival started with an “Education Day” where school groups came to the park and learned about Indigenous culture and heritage.
While the overall feel of the festival was celebratory, Indigenous speakers and the film Indian Horse did address some of the pain, injustices, and challenges Indigenous people have faced and continue to face in Canada.
On June 22, REDx Talks featured four Indigenous speakers who shared personal stories and discussed the importance of Indigenous languages. Each speaker highlighted the importance of being connected to the land, and consequences of being cut off from it.
Shelley Rabinovitch, part-time professor at the University of Ottawa, attended REDx Talks. She said the stories evoked a variety of emotions, especially anger, but that she also felt thrilled to hear about people reclaiming their language and culture.
“This is barely a start. Instead of talking at each other and across each other, people in this country need to listen to each other, including points of view, that maybe are frightening to them,” Rabinovitch said.
New to this year’s festival, the Indigenous Culinary Experience included chefs David Wolfman, Cezin Nottaway, and Trudy Metcalfe-Coe. They catered two Long Table feasts where visitors could pay for a full meal with multiple courses. Visitors could also sample food, and watch cooking demonstrations in the culinary arts pavilion. The chefs used traditional ingredients including birch syrup, dandelion greens, and seal, mixed with haute-cuisine methods.
Dancers and drummers competed for cash prizes in the festival’s largest event: a Powwow on June 23 and 24. The festival website describes the Powwow as a “gathering where we come together to celebrate, share, sing, dance, eat and have some good laughs with friends new and old.”
Robert Todd, a drum-maker and co-owner of Tribal Spirit Music, also described the Powwow as “an expression of Native excellence.” He credits it as a force of unity, strength and an important part of reconciliation.
“The Powwow drum is something all the nations have embraced and has led to the health of the people,” he said.
The competition was divided into many categories. There were four drum groups competing for up to $5,000. Dancers were divided by gender, age, and type of dance, and were competing for prizes up to $1,000.
The drummers competed at the same time as the dancers, performing their original compositions of singing and drumming, which the dancers interpreted on the spot.
Anais Piunier came to watch the Powwow, because it was one of the things she wanted to experience before going back home to France. She said at first, she felt as though she was an intruder, but began enjoying it more as the competition continued.
“It was really interesting, the connection with the drum and all the different types of dances,” Piunier said. “Every dancer had a different technique, a different way of doing it, so it was really captivating . . . I don’t know how to describe it—it was kind of hypnotizing at some points.”
Mcleod said she enjoyed her festival experience because it was “really great to see so many people coming together for it.”
After a successful run, the Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival is expected to return next year.
