Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Honor Song

My family and I love Native American gatherings, powwows. We love the energy, the dancing, the chance to experience something that is so similar to our culture. We love watching the dancing, learning more about jewelry and animal significance (the Spirit Bear has a soft spot for me, representing wisdom, courage and strength).

The food is also amazing! Frybread is AWESOME and an Indian taco always hits the spot. Yum. :)

While watching the dancing, there are certain people that are honored during each powwow. People who are honored by the community with their own song. As the song plays, this person walks around the arena, and those that would like to honor them, shake their hand and walk behind them for the duration of the song.

I was particularly moved during the honoring of Miss UCLA Powwow 2011, who was honored with a song, began with the other candidates and was later joined by others as the song continued.

I began to wonder, if this were my honoring song, who would be beside me and behind me as the song played? Who would be those that would shake my hand and walk the rest of the arena with me? It was an interesting position to think of, my own honoring song and the people that would join me during it.

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