Whapmagoostui Sundance 2021
Donation protected
Donating to the Whapmagoostui Sundance will provide direct support to this land-based gathering, which promotes healing and interconnectedness within Cree culture, language and community. Each year the Sundance also creates jobs for Whapmagoostui community members, such as cooks/caterers, Traditional Cree/Indigenous healers, lodge builders, medicine/wood/bough gatherers, hunters, fire-keepers and much more. Your donation will directly contribute to the costs of planning this important event!
This year the Sundance will take place on July 1st through 4th, 2021. Please note, given the current COVID-19 situation we are working on new protocols in order to ensure everyone's health and safety. Thank you for your support! Miigwetch.
----------------------------------------------
About the Whapmagoostui Sundance:
The Sundance, or Bahkudassimouin, is a four-day ceremony of purification, spiritual rebirth and healing of the mind, body, spirit and emotions. Sundancers make a four-year commitment to dance for Life – to gain strength so that they can deal with life’s challenges of all forms, while bringing healing, balance and harmony to their families and communities.
Twenty-two (22) years ago, several Cree people from different Cree communities in Eeyou Istchee participated in a Sundance ceremony in Spruce Woods, Manitoba. This particular ceremony was - and still is - hosted by Sundance Chief David Blacksmith and his wife Sherryl Daniels-Blacksmith. Late Joseph Esquash (Sherryl’s grandfather), an elder in his eighties guided the Blacksmiths for many years in the running of the Sundance ceremony. He had participated in Sundance ceremonies since he was eight (8) years old.
In the summer of 2004, Late elder Joe Esquash passed on the Sundance ceremony to Matthew Mukash of Whapmagoostui, QC, who became the first Cree from Eeyou Istchee to be honoured as Sundance Chief, along with his partner-in-life, Danielle O’Bomsawin-Mukash. The Mukash family has brought the Sundance home in Eeyou Istchee, and now there are seven (7) Sundance Chiefs in Eeyou Istchee who run Sundances in Eeyou Istchee each summer.
Whapmagoostui Sundance 2019
The sacred Whapmagoostui Sundance site, overlooking the Great Whale River
This year the Sundance will take place on July 1st through 4th, 2021. Please note, given the current COVID-19 situation we are working on new protocols in order to ensure everyone's health and safety. Thank you for your support! Miigwetch.
----------------------------------------------
About the Whapmagoostui Sundance:
The Sundance, or Bahkudassimouin, is a four-day ceremony of purification, spiritual rebirth and healing of the mind, body, spirit and emotions. Sundancers make a four-year commitment to dance for Life – to gain strength so that they can deal with life’s challenges of all forms, while bringing healing, balance and harmony to their families and communities.
Twenty-two (22) years ago, several Cree people from different Cree communities in Eeyou Istchee participated in a Sundance ceremony in Spruce Woods, Manitoba. This particular ceremony was - and still is - hosted by Sundance Chief David Blacksmith and his wife Sherryl Daniels-Blacksmith. Late Joseph Esquash (Sherryl’s grandfather), an elder in his eighties guided the Blacksmiths for many years in the running of the Sundance ceremony. He had participated in Sundance ceremonies since he was eight (8) years old.
In the summer of 2004, Late elder Joe Esquash passed on the Sundance ceremony to Matthew Mukash of Whapmagoostui, QC, who became the first Cree from Eeyou Istchee to be honoured as Sundance Chief, along with his partner-in-life, Danielle O’Bomsawin-Mukash. The Mukash family has brought the Sundance home in Eeyou Istchee, and now there are seven (7) Sundance Chiefs in Eeyou Istchee who run Sundances in Eeyou Istchee each summer.
Whapmagoostui Sundance 2019
The sacred Whapmagoostui Sundance site, overlooking the Great Whale River
Organizer and beneficiary
Maya Soren
Organizer
Montreal, QC
Jade Mukash
Beneficiary