Ceremony marks year of growth and change for Nîsôhkamâtotân Centre
From what Camille Louis was hearing, let alone feeling, it had been too long since NAIT had held a round dance.
Almost as soon as she started as manager at the Nîsôhkamâtotân Centre in April 2024, team members started asking about the possibility. Visitors to the centre, the campus’s gathering place for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, wondered aloud as well.
Desire for the dance, a ceremony to foster community and healing, was similarly strong outside the polytechnic. Cultural advisor Lonny Potts (below), a drummer and singer from Paul First Nation, told Louis of a palpable “craving” for round dances among Indigenous communities.
With staff eager to make one happen, and funding available to stage the first event of its kind since 2019, Louis welcomed the idea of reviving the tradition on campus as “an opportunity for us to … really demonstrate our commitment towards truth and reconciliation.”
The result was “Walking Together,” a round dance held the evening of Feb. 27 to reflect and celebrate NAIT’s commitment to Indigenous student success.
The snow and cold that day had Louis worried about attendance. But Potts was proven right. Students, staff, friends, families and community members turned up by the hundreds. They set their parkas on chairs in the vast lobby of the Feltham Centre and joined hands in a wide circle, moved by the rhythm of the drums and the voices raised in song.
Learn more about the Nîsôhkamâtotân Centre at NAIT
A healing ceremony
If you missed it, and have never been to a round dance, Louis offers a primer.
It starts with a pipe ceremony by an Elder, followed by a feast. Throughout, the stick man manages protocol for the ceremony, organizing different groups of drummers, who perform songs in sets of four. Attendees take cues from the emcee. Microphone in hand, he offers instructions, shares announcements and, as was the case at NAIT, cracks plenty of jokes.
Dancers enter the circle as they like, moving clockwise, left foot sidestepping, right gliding after.
Later in the evening at NAIT, there was a traditional giveaway, with attendees receiving everything from kids’ airplane toys to bingo dabbers to blankets and bags featuring Indigenous designs.
During the giveaway, the emcee and stick man asked Louis (below) to share a few words with attendees.
Louis thanked everyone for coming despite the weather. She shared gratitude for Potts, who she considers her cultural guide. And she recognized that such ceremonies would be impossible without the dedication and commitment of the Indigenous community.
Looking back, says Louis, “this event meant so much to me – to see it come to fruition and to see the community and the love.
“I felt so safe, and truly, genuinely guided by the spirit world.” She recalls how strong it made her feel as a Cree woman from Montana First Nation in Maskwacîs, and how it confirmed her own sense of purpose.
For Amber Duffield, the round dance was an “empowering” opportunity to connect with culture that she sees her generation as keen to explore and celebrate. The fourth year Bachelor of Business Administration – Accounting and Métis student helped promote the event through the Indigenous Student Council at NAIT, where she’s vice-president of operations.
“Getting to be immersed in the drumming and singing ... was pretty euphoric.”
“Getting to be immersed in the drumming and singing, and the feeling of community from people coming from all over the city to participate, was pretty euphoric,” she says.
Also contributing to that feeling was being able to share the experience with her husband and her younger sister, and the sense that the polytechnic was “bringing Indigenous culture into the institution” for students and others.
“It was just a really special night to be part of,” says Duffield. “I'm still thinking about the round dance pretty much every day.”
A foundation, introductions and renovations
Louis feels the success of the event rested in part on a foundation for truth and reconciliation that has been steadily strengthening at NAIT.
In addition to the 2019 dance, she points to the more recent Pîkiskwetân Series, which comprised educational sessions about Canada’s relationship with Indigenous peoples, the 2023 raising of the Treaty 6 and Métis flags at the Flagpole Plaza on Main Campus, and Connecting the Four Directions, a document that guides efforts in supporting Indigenous students at NAIT.
The dance was preceded by two other recent milestones as well. The fall and winter terms saw the introduction of the Indigenous New Student Orientation, a welcome to campus that raised awareness of available services and introduced students to each another. Potts was there to offer prayers and an honour song.
“He asked students to really reflect on what they want to achieve for the coming year,” says Louis. “There’s a lot of intention behind it.”
As well, the Nîsôhkamâtotân Centre underwent renovations to expand its student lounge. It’s more welcoming, says Louis, but still familiar.
“There are key elements I was adamant about keeping,” including sections of flooring and several lodgepoles that reach to the ceiling. When the centre opened more than 20 years ago, “these things were blessed,” says Louis. “I really wanted to honour that.”
A year of success and learnings
There’s more to come for the Nîsôhkamâtotân Centre before the year’s end.
The annual student success celebration will return, but will be held for the first time in Ernest’s, NAIT’s fine-dining campus restaurant. Louis’s team collaborated with the polytechnic’s marketing and communications department on a stole featuring an Indigenous design that students can choose to wear with their graduation gowns. And they’ve finalized the look for a decorative wrap for the hallway walls just outside the centre.
“We've had a lot of firsts this year,” says Louis. “We've had a lot of success.”
And “we’ve had a lot of learnings.”
Given the size of the undertaking, Louis isn’t sure they’ll be able to hold a NAIT round dance annually. But she knows it can be done (Louis credits Nîsôhkamâtotân Centre support staffer Heather Jimmy, Biological Sciences Technology ’21, as the event’s primary organizer), and that they have the support of NAIT’s executive team, protective services, events team, volunteers and more.
Perhaps most importantly, Louis has learned that she can rely on the community’s eagerness to participate amd contribute.
“We can trust that, when people ask for something, they will show up,” says Louis. “There is a need for it.”
