Testimonial of Roger Wylde

I think people go through that, the Pow-wow, it is a way for people to get together and to realize some things… Because some people come from somewhere else, they call it ‘inter-tribal’… an English word. It pushes people to think then to get rid of the not so good things… To banish some things people have a hard time dealing with during the year. But now, there is more and more, there are more things… I think people are opening up to the Indigenous world, which is amazing, as that was not the case in the 60s, 70s, 80s… I started out slowly, and now we’re in 2018 and I think people see the importance of the First Nations’ contributions to society. I think that’s a good thing. People come to the Pow-wow, whether they’re indigenous or not, they have friends… they make connexions together and then they know ‘OK, I need to take care of myself, I can’t give up…’. Because it is not easy to be a singer, a dancer, a dancer, it is not always easy. We’re always attracted to…. Something… that makes us regret, at times… That’s one of the reasons the Pow-wow is so important today, I think.

Roger Wylde is a visual artist, actor, traditional Abitibiwinni craftsman from Pikogan, vice-president of Minwashin, an organization created in 2017 with the aim of offering a professional structure to anicinabek artists in the territory.