The University of Manitoba’s traditional annual pow-wow is back in person


This annual event celebrates the success of Indigenous graduates, it’s a way for the University of Manitoba to connect with the next generation of Indigenous leaders can we read in the press release of the University.

The Indigenous Associate Vice-President for Students, Community and Cultural Integration, Christine Cyr is delighted to be back in person with this 33-year-old annual tradition.

A woman standing and wearing a mask.

Christine Cyr is Indigenous Associate Vice-President at the University of Manitoba.

Photo: Radio-Canada / Walther Bernal

The powwow is the cultural celebration where the students have worked very hard to make it happen, and many people have made sacrifices to make it happen.she said proudly.

According to Christine Cyr, this year, 415 Aboriginal, Métis and Inuit students will graduate from the University of Manitoba in June.

Many say they are moved to be able to celebrate their successes with their communities after many years of study.

Give back to the community

Taylor Tutkaluke has just completed her studies in kinesiology, she says she is proud to be one of the graduates of the University of Manitoba for the year 2022.

I feel lucky, she said. Other aboriginal students in Canada don’t have the opportunity we have here in Winnipeg, I know that hasn’t always been the case and I’m so grateful that those of us graduating this year can experience this experience all together.

A woman standing in an amphitheater smiles.

Taylor Tutkaluke is a recent Kinesiology graduate from the University of Manitoba.

Photo: Radio-Canada / Walther Bernal

Starting this summer, the young graduate of Cree and Ojibwe origin will start a job that will allow her to contribute to the recruitment of Aboriginal students at the University of Manitoba.

But she will continue to work as a professional coach because her goal, she says, is to have a positive impact on the well-being and health of her community.

For her part, Brandi Cable, who comes from The Paswill graduate in anthropology.

The goal of my studies in anthropology, explains the new graduate, is to become more involved in Aboriginal issues, missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls, research in residential schools, repatriations, etc.

A woman standing with people in the background.

Brandi Cable is a graduate in anthropology at the University of Manitoba.

Photo: Radio-Canada / Chantallya Louis

One of the elders present at the ceremony, Carl Stone, said he was proud of the students and graduate students of the University of Manitoba. It is important to see that students are connected to their Aboriginal identityhe adds.

A man with a hat smiles.

Carl Stone is one of the seniors who participated in the pow-wow ceremony to celebrate the new graduates of the University of Manitoba.

Photo: Radio-Canada / Chantallya Louis

Political presence

Several politicians were also present to celebrate the graduates.

Like many of the participants, the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) of Manitoba and provincial deputy for Fort Rouge, Wab Kinew had been waiting for this ceremony since the beginning of the pandemic.

He says he is proud to be part of a Canadian province with an emerging indigenous community in society.

For his part, the leader of the Liberal Party of Manitoba and MP for Saint-Boniface, Dougald Lamont says that when he was a student at the University of Manitoba, this kind of celebration did not exist.

There was a time, he adds, when the First Nations did not have the right of access to university studies. In the 1970s, my aunt went to university with one of the first First Nations women to have a law degree from the University of Manitoba.

With this in mind, it is important for him to show a great interest in First Nations communities and to support their success.



Reference-ici.radio-canada.ca

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