UPDATE (8/13/16): Miigwech (thank you) for your generous donations for the memorial contest dance in honor of our friend Audrey Swan! You gave more than $400, which helps so much toward the $500 in prizes we will award this weekend at the Pine Point Powwow.
We pray Creator God will use this dance to bless and bring healing to our friends in Pine Point.
For more photos from powwow, visit our Facebook page.
From Hope for the First Nations White Earth Liaison Ricky Smith:Audrey Swan
As we enter the third year of a four-year commitment to host a memorial dance in honor of a dear friend to HFtFN, Audrey Swan, I am asking for a monetary donation.
The past two years we have held a memorial contest dance at the Pine Point Powwow in her honor and have given away prize money to those who have come out to honor her. This year we are going to open the third year of mourning by asking traditional jingle dress dancers to bring their healing dress into the arena and bless us with the beautiful jingle sound as we continue to mourn and heal from the loss of our friend.
The jingle dress is a traditional healing dress that has been used for years in healing cerimonies to carry prayers to Creator. The medicine that is held in these dresses is not a physical medicine, but the sound made by the jingles itself is the medicine.
It is my hope that we can honor these dancers, in return for their prayers and using their medicine dresses, with prize money raised by our family and HFtFN. In the past we have raised as much as $1,000 to be split between the dancers and the drum we choose to sing the special songs required for the honoring cerimony.
Please consider a contribution to the continued healing of the Swan family and all of Audrey’s friends by making a monetary donation. You can donate directly to HFtFN via check or PayPal through Friday, Aug. 12.
Here’s where you can donate via PayPal:
And checks can be mailed to:
Hope for the First Nations
P.O. Box 13075
Springfield, IL 62791
