Taabik “Forever Young” – This is probably old news for a lot of the pow-wow music junkies, but my drum group – Taabik Singers – have been nominated for a Canadian Aboriginal Music Award for Best Pow-Wow Album (traditional). This is a very impressive accomplishment for our young drum group. Especially for our young guys. These boys give it their all, each and every time they get out and sing. We’ll be performing at the Awards Ceremony in Toronto on November 30, and singing at the CANAB Pow-Wow on that Saturday and Sunday. Congratulations guys!
Single, again… – More old news: Bob’s single again. Patience is a virtue when searching for one’s soulmate.
ThreeFires.Net – the new Three Fires Midewiwin Lodge website has been keeping me pretty busy. I enjoy working on the site, administering and troubleshooting. The official notice went out on Hallowe’en. Check it out. Register as a “Registered User” to see what’s going on in the Lodge. We’d appreciate your ongoing support.
Annual Taasewaang – On November 1, we held our annual memorial feast. This was traditionally known as the ‘Feast of the Dead’. It was a small affair, with only thirteen of us feasting and speaking for our relatives that have passed on. I once again spoke for my Dad, Dennis. I told the story of going hunting with him as a young man. For Dad, hunting wasn’t a sport, it was more like hard work. Shooting the moose was very incidental and matter of fact. The main thing I remember was a lot of heavy lifting, carrying, and trips to the butcher and so on. Then it struck me, hard work is what my Dad was all about!
Remembrance Day – I attended the Veteran’s ceremony at the Nipissing First Nation cenotaph on Sunday. I really enjoyed singing with the youth drum that morning. You guys sound pretty good!! It won’t be long until you’ll all be singing at pow-wows. I wasn’t really happy with the MC’ing of the event. Each time they went to the drum – the MC simply referred to our “traditional drumming” without talking about the songs that we sing. Reveille, Last Post and God Save the Queen are all military honours. They are not necessarily the honours of our people. However, we respect them and include these in our annual ceremony. More attention needs to be paid to our Flag Song, Veterans Song in honour of our First Nations veterans and war dead.
