PA Students Visit Harvard’s 25th Annual Powwow

Contributed by Emma Lavoie

Last month, the Peabody Institute sponsored a day trip to Harvard University for Phillips Academy students. The 25^th Annual Powwow was hosted by the Harvard University Native American Program (HUNAP). After a three-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the HUNAP program was able to welcome the return of their Powwow.

This year’s theme for the HUNAP Powwow was Protect Indigenous Futures! The event was held on Orange Shirt Day, a national day of remembrance and reconciliation for victims of residential schools, which sought to separate Native children from their families and forcibly assimilate them. The Powwow honored survivors and victims of residential schools throughout Canada and the United States.

The Powwow ceremony is an Indigenous gathering with traditional dances and music held by Tribal nations from the New England area. The event welcomed hundreds of attendees from Harvard, neighboring Native communities, and the Greater Boston area.

Students took part in community dances, which welcomed all event attendees into the arena to dance together. Many PA students took part in these community dances and got to experience the ceremony traditions first-hand.

This event was a wonderful opportunity for students to experience Indigenous cultural traditions and ceremonies. Students also had the opportunity to connect with Indigenous students, community members, HUNAP students, and Tribal nations from the Greater Boston area, New England, and those visiting from other parts of the United States and Canada.

Want to hear more about this event from the students’ perspective? Check out this article from Phillips Academy’s student paper, The Phillipian.

For more details about the HUNAP 25^th Annual Powwow, explore this article from The Harvard Gazette and video coverage of the event by Harvard University.