Sturgeon Lake First Nation is located about half an hour outside of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. This past week, we decided to make this our powwow destination. Here, I’ll be telling you all about the dancing, singing, food, vendors, bathrooms and more. Let’s get into it.
Dancing
Sturgeon Lake is a weekday powwow. Because a lot of dancers and singers work during the week, weekday powwows tend to be on the smaller side. Nonetheless, Sturgeon Lake was still jamming. Lots of dancers from across Canada and the U.S. travelled to come and participate in this year’s celebration.
Although there was no split adult category here, there was still plenty of opportunity for dancers to hop into specials and win some awesome prize money. Chief and council hosted a men’s fancy, a women’s fancy, a women’s jingle, and a men’s grass special. Most of these specials had three places and two consolation prizes so there were quite a few opportunities for dancers to compete and have fun.
Schedule
The weather did put a bit of a damper on the dancing this week. On Wednesday, it rained on and off throughout the evening. The committee ended up having to stop contest for the night halfway through the teens. I know a lot of dancers really appreciated this as no one wants to dance in the rain and damage their regalia. On Thursday, the rain continued in small quantities. But it let up just enough for us to go through two full rounds of contest singing and dancing as well as specials.
While the powwow ended early on both Tuesday and Wednesday, it didn’t end until after 10 pm on Thursday. For most powwows, this tends to be on the earlier side. However, considering it is a weekday powwow, it’s still a bit late. Ending earlier would have given dancers and singers enough time to rest and/or travel while also respecting the time of spectators (who may have to work the next day).
On Thursday evening, before the men’s fancy contest, there was a firework show. Moments like this bring so much to a powwow because it adds something different that you may not see or experience at every other celebration. Little kids and adults alike stopped to watch the fireworks before the powwow proceeded with contest.
Singing
This week, there was a mixture of experienced and new singing groups. Overall, however, the singing was really great. You could see dancers were enjoying themselves out there, both in contest and intertribal songs.
Food
While there weren’t too many food vendors to choose from, the community did have a pancake breakfast on Wednesday morning for all the visitors and community members to come and enjoy before grand entry. Breakfast consisted of hot coffee, pancakes, sausages, toast, juice, butter, and syrup. It always feels so welcoming when the host community feeds visitors. This was definitely a highlight of the week.
Bathrooms
There weren’t too many porta-potties around the powwow. They weren’t cleaned or refilled often at all. There were a couple of bathrooms at the community centre on the outside of the powwow grounds, but they were a bit of a walk to get to. Overall, the bathroom situation could definitely use some improvement.
Overall, Sturgeon Lake was an awesome powwow. Despite the rain, it turned out to be a really fun celebration. It felt awesome to meet new people, to dance hard to some great singing, and to be hosted by a generous community.
