Tansi, welcome to today’s video everyone, today I am taking you on a journey of the Manito Ahbee Festival here in treaty 1 territory of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is a festival that celebrates Indigenous arts, culture, and music. It is a gathering that celebrates Indigenous culture and heritage to unify, educate and inspire and ignite ones spirit. Manito Ahbee is named after one of our sacred sites and translates to “where the creator sits” This year was extra special because it was my first time dancing in my new jingle dress and reconnecting with a lot of people after a long season of isolation.
This year they honoured the residential school survivors in our grand entry and we were also fortunate to have visitors from our Indigenous relatives from Australia join us and also share some of their songs and dance.
It was so wonderful to reconnect with community and it felt so powerful to be jingle dress dancing among so many other powerful Indigenous women in their dresses, to hear the sounds of the dress, to see our people standing with resiliency and pride, to have our own province’s premier dancing and being honoured, it’s things like that, that can bring goosebumps and a healing energy and what I believe make our ancestors of the past so happy and proud.
On the third day I was also asked if I would come hoop dance at the Indian Horse relay happening the next day and I just couldn’t say no. It was my first time experiencing this and it actually made me so emotional to see our people so connected to the spirit of the horse and an ancient ancestral practice of paining the horse and riding.
Overall, this years Manito Ahbee festival was a treat and I am so grateful to the organizers, community members, family friends new and old and the connection to spirit that was shared amongst us all. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next one.
WHERE TO LEARN MORE?
www.manitoahbee.com
LETS CONNECT!
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