Today, I was able to attend a traditional powwow right after the youth gathering here on Manitoulin Island. I used to come to this powwow with my family all the time as a child. Moving away, I will admit I have not been able to practice my culture every single day, but I do when I can. In this picture here, this is the women’s traditional exhibition dance. The MC announced that we must stand. I knew this.

However, there are some non-native spectators that do not know this. Some non-native spectators stand and some don’t. If I try to tell one or two that they have to stand, sometimes they do without any questions and sometimes the look around and notice one or two others not standing. So they don’t.

You can see in this picture. The Traditional adult women dancers. The couple ahead of me is standing. Standing right behind them I thought, “I am proud of my culture because here everyone is standing. Honouring the women.” Then I thought about this even more. In Canadian culture, everyone else some people stand for one or two people who have done nothing for Canada except introduce a few laws or by the mere fact that they were born into the right family. **Ahem, PM Harper & Royal Family**

By the end of the song, I was proud to be standing for the women who were out there dancing.

But then it made me wonder outside of my culture, who everyone else was standing for and why?