Monday, August 5, 2013

Going Native!

Yesterday was so much fun!

One of my mom's childhood friends came to visit us, and we thought it would be fun to take him to a pow wow that was happening near our town. For those of you who don't know what a pow wow is, its a gathering of Native American tribes. There they dance, sing, and play music. Food, jewelry, clothing, and other Native American goods are sold there as well. The purpose of these events is to keep Native American culture alive, since it is so often forgotten. Contrary to common belief, they did not all die when Columbus came. I really recommend going if you haven't already been to one. The dancing and outfits are so beautiful, and I find their culture so interesting.





































There were also these guys that are called, Hoop Dancers. They dance with these hoops, starting off with one or two, and eventually add more. The hoops eventually start to make shapes, such as birds, butterflies, etc. Look at this guy. I think he is a bird here:


































At one point he had the hoops all over his leg and one in his other hand, swinging it like it was a lasso, portraying someone riding a horse.

At the pow wow there was also a woman who had a tent of birds of prey. And I saw something that I wanted to take home.






































Ever since Harry Potter came into my life, I have wanted an owl. I will have one some day ha ha.

One other really exciting thing that happened in my pow wow was that there was a dance competition. All the spectators were encouraged to show their stuff, after watching the Natives dancing. You know your home-girl joined in on all the action! Yup, me and my mom participated, and got 1st and 2nd place. It was soooooo much fun, and their dancing is way harder than it looks. The way is works is that you just dance the best you can. After that song ends, Natives come out and select you to be their dancer. They mentor you and show you how to do the dances better. Then you are shipped off into the arena and the audiences applause and reaction, decides who is the winner. My mom got first and I was second. I will never forget that. A lot of the Native Americans that would walk by us, would stop and say, "Good job out there!", which meant a lot to me for some reason. Ha ha, I'm sentimental that way. This was my mom's mentor. He was Taino Indian, which are the natives or Puerto Rico :) :












Now on to the fashion-y part. I have this tribal shirt that I love, and ruined when I was doing eyeliner one day. The eyeliner jumped out of my hand and stained my shirt. Well I saved it anyway and decided to fringe it out to hide the stain. It would really be a wastebto throw it out because it has a little black smudge on it, right?! And the end result was this:






































I simply cut little strips right after the other. Then I tied off the ends and cut the excess off to make it look cleaner. Then I pulled on the fringes lightly to make them lose that freshly-cut look. It is super simple and awesome to do on some old t-shirts or tank-tops. I wasn't really worried about it being too even because I thought it would look cool if the strings were kinda random. Pretty good for my first time, no? Lol.

Ever been to a pow-wow?
What do you find interesting about Native American culture?

xoxo
Nicole :)

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