Eastside celebrates Harvest Festival
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It’s a celebration they’ve been holding every fall for decades.
Wednesday morning marked the annual Harvest Festival at Eastside Secondary School (formerly Moira) to celebrate the Mohawk culture.
The event was organized by students in the Grade 9 Mohawk Language class under the guidance of teachers Joe Brown and Cindy Cooper.
After starting the session with a traditional Mohawk greeting more than 100 students from Eastside, as well as visiting students from St. Theresa Catholic Secondary School, participated in a number of Mohawk activities.
Grade 9 student Waasnoode Smoke-Lefort said it was important for students from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory to share their Indigenous heritage with students from different backgrounds.
“We’re doing this today to shed light on our culture because I don’t think many people realize how much of it is still left,” he said. “We have many languages, ceremonies, games — a lot of things that people — including some of our own people — don’t realize still exist. It’s nice to be able to share our culture with people, even if it’s only a small event like this, but it still raises awareness.”
Students were divided into traditional Mohawk clans – Turtle, Wolf and Bear — while Seneca nation’s Deer clan was added to accommodate more students.
The clans moved through a number of traditional Mohawk activities including lacrosse history and playing, corn husk doll making, making traditional strawberry drink and the history of Wampum Belts and the mural painted in the school’s Indigenous Gathering Space.
Brown agreed with his young student’s assessment of the festival.
“This is to highlight the cultural differences within the school and to allow all of those different cultures to come together to learn and experience Mohawk culture here at Eastside,” he said.
This marked the first year students from another local high school were invited to participate in the celebration.
“We’ve talked about it before, but we invited students from St. Theresa to participate with us,” he explained. “Not all of the kids from the Territory come to Eastside, so we wanted them to have the opportunity to share their own culture with us. We also invite international students to make sure they get the opportunity to experience Indigenous culture while they are here in Canada.”
Eastside principal Ken Manderville said the annual event is important to the school.
“Number one, I love that the students organize this event because it gives them the opportunity to share what is important to them,” he said. “To have all of our students have that opportunity to learn about Mohawk culture is very important. I would say it’s equally as important to the adults here as well.”
The morning celebration wrapped up with traditional Mohawk lunch, following a drumming and social dance session.
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