Powwow, other events teach Winnipeg newcomers about Indigenous culture

These Indigenous dancers are helping to create closer connections between their community and newcomers. That's the goal of Building Bridges, held at the atrium of Manitoba Hydro. Clayton Sandy is one of the coordinators. He says the experience helps break down misconceptions about Indigenous people. Usually when they come here, they don't see the best of Indigenous people. They see people downtown and homeless and all that, but they don't know how they got there. They don't know the real story. Shireen Doneto is the executive director at the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba. It's one of the three founding organizations behind the event. One of our participants said something that stayed with me. He said, when I close my eyes, I feel like I'm back home. I can hear the drumming, I can hear the singing, and I'm transported back home. That to me just spoke volumes about how meaningful this is. North Building Bridges is taking a team of almost 600 newcomers to the Manitoba Pow Wow. That's up from 200 four years ago. Sandy says new Canadians often find similarities between their history and Indigenous history. No matter where newcomers come from all over the world, they come from countries that have been colonized as well. So when we talk about our story about being colonized, they understand automatically what colonization is all about. and they've had it in different forms. In addition to a craft fair, the team also added a career fair this year. Sandy says newcomers and Indigenous people often deal with the same barriers when it comes to finding work. We have all kinds of barriers getting into the workforce. Most of us don't have history, most of us don't have parents that have worked in different businesses, corporations. That's where it starts from. The sharing shows in these crafts. Sandy says newcomers are making beadwork because they were taught by Indigenous people. Alicia Wang, CBC News, Winnipeg.