Tannis Kastern was upset when she heard Lakehead University’s ceremonial teepee had been vandalized.
The teepee, ripped to shreds last week, was a source of strength for Aboriginal student, a connection to their heritage that could be shared with students of all cultures and backgrounds.
Kastern was overjoyed to learn an anonymous donor had given the school a replacement teepee, a gift that was marked with a special blessing of the feathers ceremony Wednesday at the university’s Aboriginal centre and lounge.
“I am very happy that our community can come back and not reflect on a negative and go forward with the positive,” she said. “The Aboriginal community has always reflected on the positive and we just take it as another (reason) to come together as a community.”
A sacred symbol to First Nations, seeing the teepee damaged in such a senseless fashion was heartbreaking to Aboriginal students , staff and faculty.
“It’s a strength, and every day we come to school we need that strength to keep going in society and this world that we live in,” she said.
Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux, the school’s vice-provost of Aboriginal initiatives, said the quick reaction after such a negative act shows people care about what happens in their community.
It also shows how different cultures can come together. The donor, who has chosen to remain anonymous, is not of Aboriginal descent.
“The donation is absolutely fabulous. The donation is actually more than we expected. We expected a teepee, because that’s what we were told was going to be coming,”
Wesley-Esquimaux said. “But we also got a cover for our sweat lodge, which is great because we’ve been having some leaking and some problems with that.
“And then we got some eagle feathers that we wanted to have feasted. So that’s what we’re doing today.”
As a community, despite the fact negativity does rear its ugly head from time to time, overall the positive response rules.
“People in the community feel very strongly about working together and actually helping out the students. Lakehead is a very integral part of this community. Lakehead is the university of this particular city and this region and I think that’s means a lot to the people out there.”
The teepee is central to that, she said.
“Everybody who sits inside the circle is equal to each other and you can talk to each other in very close proximity and it’s very intimate,” she said. “It means that you can’t hide behind anything. And I think that’s one of the things we learned over the course of time.”
The teepee will be the site of a community-wide feast next spring.
