When it was officially announced in January of this year that the Pow Wow Between the Lakes would move from its home since 2015 at the Outma Sqilx'w Cultural School on the PIB Reserve to the South Okanagan Events Centre, one person in the room had more tears in their eyes than anyone else.
It was Kristine Jack, the executive director of the Pow Wow's founding and organizational body, the Four Seasons Cultural Society.
It was Jack's dream that one day the event would move across the Penticton channel from the reserve to the city. She felt, very strongly, that it was an ideal way to expose more people to the event and to Indigenous culture.
So when the vision came to fruition, Jack was a bit overcome with emotion -- one moment tearing up, the next laughing.
Sunday as the three-day 2023 event wound down, Jack looked around the SOEC, to the dancers and the drum groups and the elders on the floor and the cultural mix of families and friends and spectators in the stands above, and smiled.
"I'm overwhelmed," she said. "I raise up my hands to everybody who made this dream come true."
The show was a knockout from Friday's first Grand Entry onward. The singing, the drumming, the dancing, the dazzling regalia -- it was a feast for the senses.
And then in the middle of everything, a wedding.
Just a little after mid-day Saturday, Pow Wow "Head Man" and "Head Lady" and long-time sweethearts Tyrone Kruger and Nicole Schellenberg, with family all around and emotions at a peak, tied the knot.
And the crowd went wild.
"For years I believed the pow wow had to come across the channel parkway because we need everybody to be a part of it," said Jack Sunday. "We need everybody to be aware of our culture, our language, our tradition. And for me, this is the biggest way."
To Jack, the pow wow triggers deep inner pride.
"For years, my mother Clara Jack, who started the Four Seasons War Dance Club, always took our group to different places to perform, to show our culture and to show our regalia," she said. "So I'm used to being pushed out in the middle of 500 people and dancing.
"And that's who I do it for today -- the kids. My fondest memories are being that little girl in the buckskin dress with that crown. And today looking around here, I'm proud of where I came from and who I am."
But Jack thinks the event could be better, particularly on its opening day. And she's going to push her idea for 2024, when National Indigenous Peoples Day, the 21st of June, happens to fall on a Friday.
"I want next year to start the event on June 21st, Indigenous Day," she said. "And I'd like to see free entrance on that day because I'd like to pack the place. I don’t want people to say they can’t afford to get in. I want everyone here.
"For me, National Indigenous Peoples Day should be everyone walking into this building and sitting down and enjoying the evening. I can’t promise the Saturday and Sunday would be free, but Indigenous Day, let's be loud and proud."
Current Four Seasons Cultural Society head of volunteers (and future executive director) Haley Regan fully backs the concept.
"It's an amazing idea," she said. "We usually do something at Gyro Park, but if you had a free Friday at the SOEC, and especially with all the schools we have here, if we started the pow wow early morning Friday, then all the schools could bring their kids to the SOEC to see this amazing event."
As it is, Regan was thrilled with how it all unfolded. She called the turnout "amazing" but reserved some of her praise for her own volunteer team.
"I can't thank our volunteers enough," she said. "We had 100 volunteers throughout the weekend, and the main feedback I've heard is how wonderful and how helpful our volunteers were. Someone said to me you'd never have to go very far to find help if you needed it.
"And on my team I had four Indigenous people. Everyone else was non-Indigenous, and that really speaks on people wanting to be a part of Truth had Reconciliation, not just saying they support it."
For more info on the Pow Wow Between the Lakes and the Four Seasons Cultural Society, turn here.
