Love and culture make stolen regalia irreplaceable

The items were in a red hard-shelled suitcase with a white maple leaf on the side. The suitcase has a GON 2024 sticker on it for Gathering of Nations.

His mom started some of the beading featured on the regalia before his birth and the items his father left him came from California and entered the world before he did.

“I’ve had it with me for as long as I could remember, since I was small. I’ve been dancing and presenting since I could walk,” said Leander.

Having the regalia means he has a piece of his parents with him whenever he wears it. He also has added to the outfit, making his own leather leggings, aprons and side drops.

“It just really hurt to realize it was gone because it was more than just, you know, taking an outfit. It was like they took a piece of my history, a piece of who I was, what I do because that outfit, I’ve used it in a lot of places.”

Leander’s regalia have gone with him to many powwows, some as far away as New Mexico. (submitted photo/Jessica Rabbitskin)

Leander has danced at powwows in Canada and as far south as Albuquerque New Mexico. He homeschools and the powwows are part of his education.

“You know, doing those presentations, it was one of the ways that I kept true to myself. It kept me happy. It kept me safe, kept me from being homesick,” Leander explained.

“It really does feel like I’ve lost a part of myself, you know, and it really sucks because it was just a few days before our home powwow in Big River.”

Leander’s mother, Jessica Rabbitskin, said that his focus on dancing and his culture has kept her son from being attracted to a lot of unhealthy habits that are wreaking havoc amongst Indigenous youth.

Stolen regalia in modern times is too reminiscent of bad memories of older days when Indigenous people were forbidden from holding powwows.

“We weren’t allowed to do them for many, many years and people would go to jail for even having a ceremony,” Rabbitskin explained. “So now that we’re allowed to do it, it’s come back to us and it’s a way of life. It’s a healing way of life and it’s kept my son sober.”

Leander did go through a brief phase where he began drinking alcohol and it was being able to focus on his culture that pulled him through it.

The theft has been reported to the Prince Albert Police. Leander and Rabbitskin both think that if the items turn up, it will be for sale at a pawnshop but she suggested that if whoever took them realizes what they have and that it is of no use to them, they opt to find a way to give it back.

People can message her on her Facebook profile which is Jessie Wãpos or even leave the items at Tipi gas station.

Fortunately for Leander, the thieves did not take everything. They left his eagle feathers behind which are not only very expensive to get, but it is also a complex, time consuming process as hunting eagles is against the law.

His drum was also left behind. They just took the suitcase. Inside are several shirts, his leggings, two sets of aprons, beadwork and some moccasins.

—

susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

by Susan McNeil

Love and culture make stolen regalia irreplaceable

What's Trending