Aboriginal Celebration: Performance and Discussion at City Hall Library

This month we have been learning about First Nations Peoples and their History.

We went to the City Hall Library for their program on  "Aboriginal Celebration: Performance and Discussion".

Volunteers from the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto shared songs, dances, drumming and stories. 

I was really impressed with Ian's regalia. He made it himself!

He shared with us the Men's Traditional Dance.
Each dance tells a story and you can see that he even uses his facial expressions to tell the story.

Cheryle shared with us the Women's Traditional Northern Dance.
It's much softer than the Men's dance but it is very strong.

She also shared with us the Women's Side Step.

They shared a story about why they use eagle feathers.
The eagle is a very sacred bird and it has really good vision. One day at a Pow Wow, an eagle saw people dancing and he wanted to see what was going on. He flew down a bit lower and he wanted to join in. He flew down to the middle of the people and they stopped dancing because they were surprised. The eagle wanted them to continue and he tried dancing but his talons got in the way. He got very sad because he couldn't dance but the people tried to comfort him.
He gave them his feathers so that he could be with them in spirit and that is why they use eagle feathers.

At the end of the presentation they invited people to join in the Crow Hop. I was the only one who joined in (again).

But it was great dancing with both Ian and Cheryl. 

And I got to pose for a picture with them as well.

I want to say a special thanks to the volunteers from the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto for putting on these programs with the Toronto Public Library. And "Thank you" to Ian, Cheryle and Isaiah for doing this presentation.