ARIANNA
Arianna is of Cree, and Gitxsan decent. She is born and raised in Grande Prairie, Alberta. She started pow wow dancing at the age of three in the Aboriginal Head Start Program. After preschool she continued practicing traditional dancing at Traditional Paths Society weekly pow wow dance practices. She is currently 14 and has been dancing fancy shawl for 11 years! She loves to travel throughout B.C. and Alberta following the pow wow trail during the summer months, and is hoping to attend the Gathering of Nations Pow wow in Albuquerque, New Mexico sometime in the future. Arianna is so talented and creative, and started to sew and bead her own regalia over the last two years. She truly is passionate about her culture and pow wow dancing.
The Traditional Paths Society is a grassroots volunteer organization that has been serving the community of Grande Prairie Alberta for the past ten years.
The vision of the society is: “To Encourage the Traditional and Creative Expression of First Peoples’ Culture within our Community.”
To achieve its vision the society has been offering Traditional Pow Wow Dance Practice Nights once a week since 2014 to all age groups. Since its inception some of the original dancers have grown up into teenagers and are now in the position to teach new dancers!
The society also offers a weekly beading and sewing group in which members can learn to bead and do other traditional crafts and gain fellowship with one another. The Traditional Paths Society offers Ceremony and other cultural activities as it is able. The biggest thing the society is proud of is the fact that it has helped to create and maintain meaningful relationships within our community that help support each other.
We are also so proud of the dancers of our pow wow dance group as they actively help to carve out visual space for Indigenous Artisans within the Peace Region area.