THUNDER BAY — Fort William Historical Park welcomed dancers and drummers, primarily local but also from further out, to its annual Anishinaabe Keeshigun, formerly known as Ojibwa Keeshigun, this weekend.
The over 40-year celebration, started in 1982, and featured a pow wow as the park’s central focus with a grand entry at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
While Anishinaabe Keeshigun invited youth drummers from the Thunder Bay area and many other guests from Northwestern Ontario, this year, the host drum group, Bloodline, was from Manitoba.
Anishinaabe Keeshigun is a local Indigenous peoples day, not to be confused with National Indigenous Peoples Day, said Alyssa Cacciatore, the park’s visitor experiences coordinator.
“This event has been happening since the early 1980s and really as an Indigenous cultural celebration and to really engage with the community, so it’s also important to us that we’re not solely depicting the history today, we’re bringing out community members,” Cacciatore said.
To really allow for a celebration, she explained that the park had some craft vendors alongside the pow wow.
With a few of these craft vendors from Saskatchewan, Cacciatore said the park had many Fort William First Nation members and also many members from different First Nations communities.
In addition to the pow wow and craft vendors, the celebration also held guided tours, daily canoe rides on the Kaministiquia River, atlatl or spear throwing, woodland era pottery, axe throwing, beading, a scavenger hunt, information booths, baggataway or lacrosse, double ball, a screening of Remembering Richard Lyons and many artisan demonstrations.
These demonstrations included fishnet weaving, beaver hide preparation, birch bark canoe building, bead work and more.
“Lots of exciting things,” Cacciatore said.
The park also had a bannock contest, she explained, that they’ve been doing annually, where people can participate, whether they know how to make bannock and they’re well-practiced or they have never made it before. The contest was held on Saturday with prizes.
A bone and pin game, based on a historical recreation of the game, was another contest held during the celebration.
For those who attended the event, Cacciatore said not to be afraid to engage, come out and learn things or “just immerse yourself.”
“We have lots of food samples, so it’s always great to be able to go and have some bannock or bakwezhigan or fry bread, however you may know the name, and just learn the history of that,” Cacciatore said.
“And the cultural importance of wild rice (manoomin), for example, and just really engage in that way and to be able to see the current day as well as the history of the area.”
Smoked fish, a strawberry drink and corn were also available at an on-site Bannock Lady food truck and the park’s Cantine Restaurant.
“We’ve been doing a corn roast for many years and we’re actually drying out a bunch of the corn husks to use for our Halloween Hoot event coming up as well, as well as possibly some other crafts coming up. So just really making use of everything,” Cacciatore said.
A free community feast was also open to all visitors on Saturday evening outside the Cantine Restaurant, offering bison stew with smoked tomatoes and stone bread, as well as a vegetarian option.
A gift-giving ceremony was scheduled to wrap up the celebration on Sunday evening at around 4 p.m.
