Miss Indian World contestants promote native culture
Young women travel to New Mexico to participate in Gathering of Nations
GREG SORBER / AP
Violet John is crowned Miss Indian World 2006 at the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow on Saturday, April 29, 2006. This year's 33rd annual Gathering of Nations takes place April 28 to 30.
Though the winner dons a crown and a sash, the Miss Indian World contestants are there to show off hand-stitched regalia, powwow dancing and cultural knowledge.
Miss Indian World, a pageant held in late April in Albequerque, N.M., is part of the annual Gathering of Nations, which bills itself as the largest native American powwow in the world.
The title is highly respected among First Nations communities in North America, said pageant co-ordinator Melonie Matthews.
“The Miss Indian World pageant honours and highlights native culture and traditions that have been passed down from generations through young women, who are and may become future leaders in their communities,” Matthews said.
Pageant entrants are judged based on cultural tribal knowledge, dancing ability, public speaking and personality assessment.
The 33rd annual Gathering of Nations takes place April 28 to 30. Six of 24 contestants are Canadian. The Star spoke to the three contestants from Ontario.
Chezney Martin, 19
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Tsiako’nikonrhenskon (Mohawk, She Forgets) of Seneca Nation, Turtle Clan.
The Niagara College graduate and reporter at Two Row Times lives on the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve near Brantford, Ont.
How did you get involved and why do you want to participate?
For 2014-2015, I was Miss Six Nations in my community. That was the first time I ever competed in a pageant. I competed in Miss CNE and Miss IDLA, which is the Indian Defense League of America, and I came first runner-up. I just did that to gain experience. And right now I’m on the Ontario First Nations Young Peoples Council as a female representative for my community. I feel like I’m ready, and that’s why I’m going this year.
What’s your talent?
My performance is hard to explain but I’m incorporating lacrosse, the meaning of my name, and the democratic confederacy of my people. My presentation is about the importance of decision-making in the past for my people and in the future for all indigenous people. We have to make the right decisions to lead our people into positive directions rather than negative ones.
What is the meaning of your name?
It’s not She Makes the Sun Shine or She Makes the Snow Sparkle. It’s She Forgets. The name was given to me by someone, an elder, who passed away. The name always reminds me of losing someone knowledgeable, almost like the name means I Remember.
Part of the job, if you win, is promoting cultural awareness. Do you have a particular strategy or something you want to focus on?
I want to focus on youth and children. The best way I feel I can do that is by going into classrooms. The main thing I want to be able to do is wear my regalia and explain who I am and pass on the belief that, no matter who you are, you should be proud of who you are. We as indigenous people have been living through a lot of intergenerational oppression. Today we’re not quite as oppressed as we once were. This is our time to heal. I want our kids to be proud of who they are.
Can you describe your regalia?
My regalia isn’t quite powwow-looking. You see the fancy shawl dancers and jingle dress dancers. Ours is like a plain ribbon dress that has a skirt and leggings and of course, moccasins. We usually wear a beaded crown, beaded cuffs and a beaded yoke, all done in a raised beadwork style.
Are you excited, are you terrified?
I’m not really nervous or anything. I just feel like I’m ready. I’ve done so much for the competition. I’ve made my own regalia. I’ve done a lot of public speaking and so much fundraising. I don’t have time to be afraid.
There’s been a lot in the news about the history of residential schools and about the national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. Did that affect your decision to enter the pageant?
The whole reason I wanted to go is because Miss Indian World is a venue for women from different areas to come into a sphere where we can meet each other as strong women and break stereotypes. We’re all well-educated in the Western world and we have ambitions in the Western world but at the same time we have our cultural world where we know our songs, our ceremonies, our dances, our speeches, our languages. That was the main reason I wanted to be able to go — to be a part of that. A sisterhood in which we break stereotypes together at this pageant.
Women really are important, especially to my people. The Haudenosaunee are matriarchal and matrilineal, so the women are everything. We are really, really equal to our men.
Because of the residential school system, I’m actually the first generation in my family to restore language, me and my sister. My grandmother on my father’s side was a fluent Mohawk speaker. When she was 8 years old, she was taken during the “Sixties Scoop” and sent to residential school. I’ve heard stories about when she would speak, if she couldn’t use English, they would take her and poke her tongue with needles. Hearing those kind of stories makes you want to protect what was taken. That’s why I learned the language and why I know who I am now. If I were to win Miss Indian World I would promote the idea that language is so, so important.
Annalissa Dequaine-Pasapa, 20
Tahcha Win (Lakota, Deer Woman)
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The future communications student at the University of Windsor is spending the year in Lakota language immersion at home and practising traditional arts like sewing, beadwork and rawhide.
Her heritage includes Hunkpapa/Oglala Lakota, Cree, and Southern Cheyenne/Arapaho from Whitebear, Sask., on her mother’s side. Her father is Stoney Nakoda and Plains Cree from Alexander, Alta.
Can you tell me why you got involved in the pageant?
It goes all the way back to 2005 when I went to the Gathering of Nations powwow. It was the first time I got to see a Miss Indian World up close and personal. I was just in awe. The crown was so huge, the sash was so beautiful. I just made a point to figure out how she got there, what it took to get that title and who she was. I tried to follow in the footsteps.
I took all the education I could get. I was classically trained in piano, jazz vocal, choral vocal, Lakota traditional vocal singing and hand drumming. I did it all. I was even a student of ballet. I did everything I could and my mom really encouraged me to be the artist I am today.
My main purpose as Miss Indian World would be to bring more attention to indigenous artists so we can be seen and appreciated the way we deserve to be. The real meaning of being a native American or indigenous woman and being an artist is not that we’re always in buckskin and fringes and beads. It’s that we’re also fashion designers, we’re directors, we’re filmmakers, we’re screenwriters, we’re actors, singers and musicians. We’re all kinds of things, we’re educated.
I was going to ask you how you have prepared but it sounds like you’ve been preparing your whole life.
I’ve had my eyes on that crown since I was 11.
What talent are you going to show off during the performance?
I’m a singer, so I’m going to be showcasing hand drumming and singing in my language, how it’s traditionally meant to be. I really love the love songs of my people but it’s not going to be totally about love, person to person. It’s about loving yourself and your people and who you are. My motto is “Theich’ihila,” which means to love yourself and hold yourself to a higher standard and not to lower yourself in any way. It’s a little word with a big meaning.
What would it meant to you to win?
It would mean everything. I’m what they call an urban native, I’m a city girl. To bring the crown to the people in the cities and show pride in the fact you don’t have to be on the reserve. I live in both worlds, the city world and our traditional world. All my life I was raised this way. I was born in the city and I spent all my summers and sometimes my winters with my people on the reserve. I was in touch with that lifestyle, even though I was always surrounded by so many different kinds of people, colours and races and even languages. I think that’s what makes me who I am today, because I can understand all people, not just my people.
Do you speak Lakota at home?
Yes, we all do. My siblings and I are not as fluent as my mom but we are getting there.
A lot of what we hear about Canada’s indigenous people has really been about tragedy — residential schools and the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Does any of that inform your motivations?
It’s great you brought that up because it’s a big part of my life. My mother is a residential school survivor. Her childhood was really taken away from her from that experience. At one time she couldn’t speak Lakota, she didn’t know her family or where she was from, but through all the healing she has done in the past years, our family has really, really grown from that experience. It brought us closer together. We took it all back: we took our language back, we took our traditional lifestyle back, we took our family back.
I also do have aunties who have died, who went missing, who were murdered. I want to bring that up too. A lot of my family members have gone through that kind of loss. It’s a deep wound in our family. That’s all I want to say about that.
If you won, it sounds like you would be motivated to bring that to other people?
For sure. It’s one of the things I would always stand up for. It’s very near to my heart.
Can you describe your regalia?
When I go to powwows, our celebrations, I dance southern cloth. There’s two variations of the southern traditional style. There’s southern buckskin and southern cloth. Most of my outfits are made out of trade cloth, silk, brocade or any kind of shiny material. There’s also beadwork and some rawhide. There’s a lot that goes into our regalia.
When it comes to spreading cultural awareness, what would you focus on?
I’d be an advocate for language revitalization. One of my goals is to become a language instructor. It was a gift that was given to me. I want to give it back to the other people who have lost it.
Akeshia Trudeau, 24
Ziibiikwe (Anishinaabemowin, River Woman)
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The third-year Algoma University student lives in Sault Ste. Marie, where she studies biology and Anishinaabemowin. She is a member of Whitefish River First Nation.
What made you want to get involved in this thing?
That goes back to 13 years ago. They had a powwow in Toronto at the SkyDome, which I guess is the Rogers Centre now. It was 2003 and I was junior Miss Wawaskinaga, a crown representing my community. At powwows all the royalty comes in together at the front. I never heard of Miss Indian World until that day, when I met her there. I met her in the powwow lineup. I tagged along with her that whole day. She was so kind to me and she became a role model of mine. Her name is Onawa Lacey, and we are still Facebook friends.
I remember her saying, “Maybe when you’re older, you can be Miss Indian World.” It was that day that kicked it off for me.
You’ve been thinking about it for 13 years, but how do you prepare for it?
I don’t feel like I am really prepared for it. I don’t know if you ever can be. I don’t know what to expect.
What are you bringing down to present in New Mexico?
I’m bringing my quillwork. I’ve been working on that. It’s only a three-minute presentation, but I talk a lot. There’s also a dance part, the talent part, and personal interviews.
It must be tough to practise dance when you’re studying for exams.
I usually spend eight to 10 hours at school studying every day.
The pageant is more about being a role model than a beauty queen so tell me what your priority would be.
I’ve struggled a lot in school because I have epilepsy. I look normal and talk normal so sometimes people thought I was making it up, but I was struggling. But I’m able to make it through to continue to work toward what I want to be, which is a doctor, in the long run.
I’ve wanted to be a doctor since kindergarten and since 8th grade I’ve been in and out of the hospital. I’ve been around a lot of doctors, good and bad. And on the reserve especially, I’ve seen a lot of not great health care offered and I’ve lost quite a few family members due to inadequate health care on the reserve. So I really want to travel to reserves mostly in Ontario and offer health care. So besides becoming a role model to help the youth keep pursuing their education, I think that becoming Miss Indian World would help me shed light on issues facing everyone in Indian country.
Especially here in Canada, we also see a lot about missing and murdered indigenous women and I’d like to be a voice for issues like that.
Does that issue and the residential schools legacy have to do with why you’ve entered the pageant?
They’re both very important issues to me. I have been affected by them. A few of my cousins have been taken from us through both. My dad’s mother was put through residential school and my dad’s relationship to his mother was never quite the same (as his siblings). His grandparents raised him.
Did you grow up speaking English or did you grow up learning the Anishinabe language?
My dad is fluent. I’m working on becoming fluent. I speak a little bit and I can understand it. I have a 5-year-old niece and it sounds so natural coming out of her mouth.
One of your duties, if you win, is to promote cultural awareness and understanding.
I’m not into cultural appropriation, but I am all about keeping balance. Lots of people get ashamed over the word “Indian.” But the title is Miss Indian World, and it’s the word I was raised to say.
What kind of dancing will you do?
I dance jingle. I do my own beadwork and quillwork. My mom and I take turns sewing. When I go home after exams I think we’re going to try to push out a couple of dresses. My brother and I will put on the cones. I used to dance fancy until I was about 16, but I switched to jingle after going through a hard time. Jingle is known in my tribe as a healing dance, so I switched to that. I love the feeling I have when I dance.
What would it mean to you if you won?
It would mean I would have the opportunity to share my voice with my people and help my people.
These interviews have been edited and condensed.
http://www.thestar.com/life/2016/04/23/miss-indian-world-contestants-promote-native-culture.html
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