City to provide funding for CLFN Healing Pow Wow

During city council’s August 8 regular meeting, council agreed to provide $5,000 in funding for Cold Lake First Nation’s First Annual Traditional Healing Pow Wow.  

The First Annual Traditional Healing Pow Wow will be the first held in the community since the 1960s, and will be the first local pow wow of its kind for this generation.

The event will feature several traditions, including a pipe ceremony, prayer, tribal dancing, drummers, song,  a feast, and a vendor’s market offering the sale of traditional foods and merchandise. Its purpose is to bring the community together to celebrate time-honored traditions, provide cultural awareness, and to help educate future generations. 

“The event Cold Lake First Nations is putting on is a huge gathering of indigenous people from all over Western Canada as well as the U.S.,” Mayor Craig Copeland said.

“The City of Cold Lake is more than happy to help with the success of the Pow Wow by allowing CLFN to host the event at the Cold Lake Energy Centre and to provide a grant. Hotels, restaurants and others business will also benefit from all the visitors coming in for the pow wow. The event will provide a boost to the local economy in addition to an important chance for increased cultural awareness.” 

The Silver Wolf level of sponsorship of $5,000 will cover the cost of hosting the event at the Imperial Oil Palace within the Cold Lake Energy Centre, in addition to other costs associated with putting on the event. 

The Traditional Healing Pow Wow will be held on Saturday, August 26, from 7:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. at the Cold Lake Energy Centre.

For more information on the event, please email powwow@clfns.com.