Les danses au Pow-wow de Kanesatake : source de guérison
Kanasatake's Pow-wow was born in 1991, following the landmark event of the "Oka Crisis". As a result of this conflict, the initial objective was an attempt at reconciliation and the maintenance of good understanding between members of the Aboriginal community and the non-members, also known as "allochtones" residing on land adjacent to their territory in the municipality of Oka. The purpose of this master thesis is to understand how a pow-wow event like Kanesatake's and the dance performances presented there can be a healing factor for Aboriginal artists. To achieve this, we spoke with traditional dancers, participants in the 2018 and 2019 Pow-wow, to learn about their personal journeys and perceptions of their own spirituality, as well as the external and historical factors that may have influenced their artistic practices. Over the course of the interviews, the notion of psychic, physical and collective healing was reiterated in several responses given by participants. We will also see in more detail the links surrounding traditional outfits, dances and musical rhythms. We will also refer to the “International Meeting of Aboriginal Performance Art” event (RIAPA), which is more in a contemporaneity to indicate a certain continuity between these two events.
pow-wow performances powwow dance healing spirituality Pan-indianism Native