PRESENTED AT OUR 2015 FESTIVAL
The hoop itself
represents unity,
inclusiveness
and equality
Sagowsko was inspired by the Anishnaabe (Ojibway) hoop dance story taught when Sandra Lamouche first started learning to hoop dance in 2005. Pukawiss, the disowned one, was fascinated with nature. His father, who wished he was more like his older brother, a great hunter and warrior, disowned him. Pukawiss left his family and performed for different villages, eventually creating the hoop dance.
Sagowsko expresses the sacredness and strengths of Native women, the exploration and discovery of nature, the devastation of loss and disconnection, and finally, feeling the heartbeat of the earth and reconnecting. Sagowsko represents a sort of healing ritual one may experience when able to be oneself, to live in a connected way with identity and the world.
Sandra Lamouche
Sagowsko, “bush woman,” is the nickname of Sandra Lamouche, who is a member of the International Dance Council and holds a B.A. in Native American Studies from the University of Lethbridge. Sandra is completing a Master of Arts Degree in Indigenous Studies from Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario.
Dance is one of the ways that we reconnect the sacred hoop, which has been broken through colonization and assimilation as we recreate our reality to benefit all of creation.
I am my ancestors. WE are our ancestors. Not just descendants of our ancestors, but we are experiencing the same things they have experienced for years! We are fighting the same fight. We are being our ancestors, by being ourselves.
–Sandra Lamouche
Also see Sandra Lamouche at the Breakfast with Sleepy Artists Panel.
