Round Dance Festival with the Ojibwe

The 14th of March, 2015 was a day of much memorabilia. Together with a group of about ten students of University of Michigan, led by Dr. Bruce Martin, Director of ECIR, I had the -first of its kind- opportunity to be a part of the Round Dance Festival, a cultural event hosted by the Ojibwe, an indigenous tribe of North America. About 15 Drum Groups from US and Canada were expected to play at this event.

Needless to say, the email announcing the trip caught my attention and made me visit the centre asking for more details. Bruce grew up in the Ojibwe tribe and his passion toward reviving their culture and language was very apparent when he described the event to me. That motivated me enough to sign the cheque for the trip.

Before we left, we were introduced to some customs and ceremonies of Ojibwe people by Bruce, some Our group was a very diverse one, with people from different backgrounds such as Marketing, Communication Studies and Engineering all coming together for this unique event. Barriers dissolved quickly and by the time we reached Mt. Pleasant, we were a chirpy group.

Soon the proceedings began with a pipe ceremony where the chief called for interested people to sit in a circle with him and partake in smoking of the pipe in turns as it went around. Each time a person smoked, he would point the mouth of the pipe to the other side and then pass it on. We were cautioned not to take pictures during this event since it held great spiritual significance. The food that was spread out was smudged with the smoke from the pipe as a good omen for health.

We then were allowed to have our fill from a lavish spread of meat, vegetables and desert. With a few vegetarian options available, I was satisfied indeed. After dinner, it was time to dance.

The various Drum groups who had arrived from various places started to sing and play. Though on the outset, they seemed very similar to each other, after a while one could feel the subtle differences in the tempo, spirit and power in the songs.

There was one drum group in particular that blew me away and had me dancing intensely through every song they played. With the repetitive two - step beats, it wasn't hard to invent new steps to the rhythm. Dancing to their songs was a trance like feeling coupled with a sense of togetherness that bound all the people in that circle.

After this, as a final proceeding, we witnessed a Healing ceremony where the near and dear family members of the Ojibwe community who had passed away recently were remembered and payed respects to. We reached Ann Arbor in the early hours of Sunday, sleepy, tired, the drum sounds still ringing fresh in our ears.

LeaderSHIP

Who knew learning about becoming a great leader could be tons of fun?

My last weekend was spent at Camp Caraway, North Carolina as part of the TRUE Leadership Retreat. Yes, TRUE is an acronym standing for Trust, Relationship, Understanding and Excellence, each an integral part of developing leadership. How did I end up here? Well, I got an email about it from Larry Champoux (member of International Students Inc.) and also that two scholarships were being offered on a first-come basis which covered travel, food and accommodation at a nominal cost. Hoping this could turn out into a 5-day mini vacation, I signed up for it.

I traveled with Freeborn Rwere, a post-doc at UofM in Chemistry. Talking to him, I could see that he came across as a perfect  representative of Zimbabwe (his home country). It was interesting to know how he compared politics and society back home with what he experienced during his 9 years in USA.

Steve and Karen Lynip picked us up at Charlotte brought us to the camp after a hearty lunch at Cici's Pizza. We were received by an ecstatic Dan Kronstad who set us up in our cottage. As the day ended we met other students and staff coming in after long road trips. The next four days were going to be fun.

The food was one of the highlights of the retreat with ample options even for a hopeful vegetarian like me. Too bad the packed schedule didn't give us extra time to binge on the delicacies. Neither did it give us enough time to sleep in late in the comfortable air-conditioned bedrooms. But I can't complain, the tiring activities more than made up for it.

One other highlight of the retreat were the speakers invited to talk about leadership. The gifted speakers Eunkyu Lee and Eshan Samei talked at length about the different aspects of cultivating leadership. They were very effective in communicating their thoughts through personal life examples and dispelled my notion that lectures on this topic would put me to sleep.

We were segregated into life-groups and were led to perform several of team-building exercises that brought about a deeper understanding of each other. The two best activities I was proud to be a part of were Boat-Building and a Circuit of 8 team-tasks. The most challenging of the 8 was to have our entire team climb over a 15 feet wall without any tools. 

The Boat-Building was intense and rewarding as finally we had to cross the lake in our boat. Yes you read that right, cross the lake in a cardboard boat! 

Among the activities, the High-Ropes course and  Paint ball were the ones to look out for. The high ropes took its toll on you making you traverse paths you wouldn't have dared to at first glance. Paint ball was fun especially for those who didn't get shot (and thus didn't get painful shot marks). Foosball, Air-hockey and Ping-pong should not be forgotten here.

There were some hilarious and fun moments as well, one of the particularly good ones was the Bhangra dance my team and I put up during the culture show. Hats off to my team who put in all their spirit and learnt some jazzy Balle Balle and thumkas. Watch it here.

The people I met and the friendships I developed here are sure to go a long way. I have seldom met a bunch of people as enthusiastic and spirited as these. I got to learn a lot from them and hope to put it to good use. Concluding this post with this beautiful video which sums up a lot of the memories!