For two decades, the Manito Ahbee festival has been showcasing Indigenous cultures, inviting all Manitobans to experience one of the largest powwows in North America.
On Sunday, the festival at Red River Exhibition Park welcomed 43 new Canadians at a citizenship ceremony — a first in Manito Ahbee’s 20-year history.
The ceremony was facilitated by Suzanne Carrière, Canada’s first Métis citizenship judge.
“Reconciliation with Indigenous peoples is a responsibility shared by all Canadians, even new Canadians, as you’re about to become,” Carrière said during the ceremony.
Carrière led attendees through an oath, later shaking hands with each of the new citizens as they were welcomed by Indigenous leaders.
Manito Ahbee board chair David Dandeneau said it was a “joyful” experience to hold a citizenship ceremony at the festival, adding it was the “perfect setting” for new Canadians to experience the many cultures of their new home.
“The Indigenous peoples were the first ones here. So the very essence of Canada is rooted in that. And I think if they want to have the Canadian experience, the true Canadian experience, they have to experience this,” Dandeneau said.
He said he hopes the festival will continue to hold citizenship ceremonies moving forward.
Hugh Oates, who moved from Jamaica to Winnipeg about six years ago, said it was a joyous moment to celebrate Indigenous culture while becoming a Canadian citizen.
“It was good, knowing that they have built this country and we are here with them. It’s a good feeling knowing that we are enjoying the legacy that they put out for us,” Oates said.
His wife, Kera Blake-Oates, said “proud is an understatement” when it comes to becoming a Canadian. And achieving that milestone at Manito Ahbee “makes us feel very welcome.”
Oates said the family has tickets for the festival and they are excited to learn more about Indigenous cultures.
Shortly after the citizenship ceremony, a powwow featuring hundreds of dancers in regalia began.
Outside, photographer Katie Lambe said she was working on a nearby film shoot but she felt that the drums were calling to her.
A Canadian citizen originally from Newfoundland, Lambe said experiencing her first powwow at Manito Ahbee on Sunday was a “life-changing” experience.
“It was the most beautiful display of community,” she said, getting emotional while recounting what it was like to see a sea of dancers dancing in unison.
“The singing and the drums, the dancing, the glitter. It was incredible. I was just in awe of the entire thing, ” Lambe said.
Lambe said that in that moment she felt “lucky” to live in Manitoba, a province with “such a beautiful, vibrant community of Indigenous people.”
Dandeneau said the powwow experience “touches you in the most profound way.”
That’s why the new Canadians were introduced during the powwow’s grand entry at noon on Sunday.
“If you honour and respect your fellow man, or women, or whoever, that’s where you establish bonds and you establish reconciliation — true reconciliation,” Dandeneau said.
New Canadians take their citizenship oaths during the 20th edition of Winnipeg’s Manito Ahbee festival, one of the largest celebrations of Indigenous culture in North America.
