Blue Crow: Pow Wow

week 31

Out of the list of prompts, this one jumped out. I've only ever been to one pow wow in 2006 and that was a lovely weekend, with lots of colour, dancing and creative people. I enjoyed it. I keep meaning to go to another but haven't done yet. Is it pagan? No, not really, well not this one anyway. I should imagine like morris dancers, most of this lot were Christian. If 'pagan' is the umbrella term for anyone who doesn't believe in one god, then are Native American's pagan? The revere the Great Spirit. They revere nature spirits... so by definition, they aren't pagan as they have the one great spirit... pah! Pigeonholes and pedantics ... who cares?! I don't lol.

My friend Fred told me about a pow wow at the Bison farm not far from Stonehenge. I love Native American things and went along for the weekend. I'm not sure what I was expecting but what I found was special. People, normal people, dressing up in traditional ceremonial dance costumes and taking part in traditional Native American grass and fan dancing. Everyone was invited to join in, regardless of dress. And those little steps really tire you out! Fantastic drumming and I don't mean some out of rhythm bongos or African drums, these were proper pow wow Indian dance drums. The sound was very intoxicating and I found myself trancing out at times, which is what they are supposed to do, tap into that part of you, and take you away with the beat and lead you into ecstatic dance.

The bison farm, farms bison for the meat market. Bison is a very low fat meat, dense and really tasty, there was owls and other animals there too. Anyway... the pow wow. Feathers, tassles, coloured beads (not plastic ones either!), big elaborate costumes. No one was pretending to be an indian, which I was afraid of, but they were dressed up in the dance outfits and honouring the Dance. I've since watched Treme and seen the 'indians' that do Mardis Gras - each area has a tribe and they make huge colourful outfits, play music and dance their territories. There are many animals and birds that do this display for territory and mating purposes, so to me, this is no different. They did it for fun though and I was envious of the efforts that had gone into these outfits.

Also there were some licensed traders of Native American crafts. Kind of like fair trade but for the tribes, you can only sell genuine crafts if you have a license. I bought a bone, horn and glass bead Mohawk bracelet, a cedar seed and blue bead necklace and some porcupine quills. It was at the pow wow where I met Blue Deer who made flutes. I commissioned him to make me a bog oak flute with turquoise inlay. These are all happy memories that I have just recalled after finding these pictures on my computer. I have 50,000+ images, all memories waiting to be revisited. Here's a selection of images I took... enjoy.