I enjoyed the dances, music and of course the amazingly rich clothes. ( One of the dancers told very clearly, 'these are NOT costumes'.) The dances were slow in their motion, like Tibet dances.
The clothes had amazing embroidery with beads sewn on to them. Also lots of porcupine quills, feathers, teeth and claws of some animals and ? birds, tails and skins of animals. Many of the indigenous people here were metis i.e. people born to parents of two races i.e. indigenous Indians and Caucasians I believe.
The current life of indigenous Indians in Canada is not so great and this was expressed in their speeches at the Pow-Wow. It was depressing to hear the problems of their communities.
One more thing I would like to add is that I have always felt a vague guilt about native Canadians (many terms are used to refer to them such as indigenous people of Canada or or first nation people or native americans, previously called as red indians)...I immigrated to Canada from India and I feel vaguely guilty that I have a better life than many of the indigenous people.
The popular belief and history seems to indicate that the indigenous people of Canada and USA were displaced by the Caucasians from Europe. It is sad that every year thousands of people come from all over the world to Canada & USA and make a better life for themselves but many First nation people to whom this land truly belongs, lead lives of poverty in this rich land.
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