‘Pow Wow’ celebrates Indigenous Peoples’ Day, strives to create cultural awareness

WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAW) - After three long years, the Central Wisconsin Indigenous Peoples’ Day Committee held its first pow-wow event since 2019.

Unifying people once again to celebrate indigenous culture in Wausau.

“We’re just having a great time here just getting together again, so it’s very, very good for the community,” said Bruce LaMere, President of Central Wisconsin Indigenous Peoples’ Day Committee.

11 different tribes from across the state came together this afternoon in Marathon Park.

The event consisted of various dances, music, and spectacular representation.

“As you can hear, the drum beat is the heart, so you can feel that quite a bit,” said LaMere, “and we’re all dancing in a circle today, we really like that. It represents the seasons, the four seasons, so we really enjoy that.”

Through all of the eye-catching visuals and unique sounds, the primary goal of the event is to educate and provide awareness of different cultures.

“We’re trying to bring cultural awareness to the central Wisconsin area, to the Wausau area,” said LaMere, “We’re having a lot of people come here and families. And also we have a lot of the different tribes coming in.”

With nearly a dozen tribes unifying together for the public, being back at this year’s Pow Wow provides a reunion for everyone.

“Our families have grown up in this area, many of us went to school in this area,” said LaMere, “we are part of the community and we like it.”

Given that the organization was formed in 2019, it has only been growing ever since.

This certainly showed given the large turn-out on Saturday afternoon.

“As we found out today, it’s quite crowded, so that’s good,” said LaMere, “we really like that.”

If you would like to experience the event yourself, day two of the pow-wow celebration continues on Sunday at Marathon Park starting at 1 pm.

The event is free and open to the public.

Copyright 2022 WSAW. All rights reserved.