We began our culture trip in Lac Courte Oreilles, attending the “Reclaiming Our Children Round Dance” on Friday, February 8th. The community welcomed us with a feast of wild rice “manoomin”, elk, berries, walleye “ogaa” and frybread. A few of our students participated in the youth hand drum contest and won 3rd place! Yay ICS Eagles! This was an amazing experience for our ICS families! LCO’s community came together to show how they take care of each other in everything we do.
Throughout the weekend, ribbon skirts were flowing and the men were dressed to impress with their traditional gear including appliqué ribbon shirts and moccasins.
On Saturday, we attended the Bad River Biboon Gabeshiwin Winter camp where we learned about “kinickinic” and how to make yarn sashes.This was a first time experience for most of us — everyone was very welcoming and shared their teachings with us. There were a few familiar faces which always makes us feel right at home!
That evening, our group participated in the Bad River Wellbriety Round Dance which was a great example of how much care goes into taking care of their community. Our families volunteered their time in setting up for the round dance and we helped with clean up as well. During the round dance, our students and alumni won third place in the youth hand drum contest and we all danced the night away until the early morning. In all, we made new friends and brushed up on our dance moves! Please be on the look out for more Our Ways culture trips in the future!
For more information, please feel free to stop up in Our Ways on the 3rd floor or email Audra Williams at auwilliams@ics-edu.org.
