Winter gathering brings Indigenous community together to honour ancestors (4 photos)

A group of Indigenous students and community members came together at Enji Maawnjiding in Sault College to take part in a winter gathering - featuring feast food, drumming and storytelling - in order to honour ancestors and loved ones who have passed on.

The event was organized by second-year students of the Social Service Worker - Native Specialization program at the college.

“It’s a really great event that brings in the community, and we were lucky enough to be asked, as a class, to facilitate this event,” said Karina Drury, social service worker student.

The winter gathering was initially scheduled for the fall, but the nearly two-month long strike that impacted postsecondary institutions across the province postponed the gathering until the winter.

The gathering began with a prayer before students and community members lined up for the feast, which consisted of moose stew and partridge soup, among other food items.

Drumming and singing, provided by Dion and Logan Syrette, sparked an impromptu round dance, before some traditional storytelling took place.

A bag full of birch bark was available so that people could place portions of the feast food on the pieces of bark - along with a small portion of tobacco - and offer it to the sacred fire that was being tended to by a firekeeper in the college’s Sacred Fire Arbour.

“Essentially, what the point is, we are going to feed our ancestors and give thanks for everything that they have done for us,” said social service worker student Brianna Germain.

Similar events are held in the fall in a number of First Nations, usually on or around the first of November, also known as ‘all souls day,’ where Indigenous people honour those who have passed on.

“The Indigenous population believe that’s our connection with our ancestors, at that sacred fire,” Drury said.

“So making that feast plate, that’s us providing nourishment to our ancestors.”