Anticipation, excitement, apprehension and nervousness were just some of the emotions felt by the 15 participants who participated in the First Nation Métis and Inuit (FNMI) winter sweat lodge.
“I didn’t know what to expect. I just went in there with an open mind and hoped for the best,” says Rina DeCecco, a resident from the Crowsnest Pass who experienced her first-ever native sweat lodge.
In the end what she and the other participants gained through the experience was new insight, knowledge, personal clarity, inner peace, and a better sense of appreciation for the native culture.
“I came out refreshed and enlightened. I felt like all the worries I had were taken off of my shoulders,” says DeCecco.
The four-round healing sweat took place Feb. 12 at Leonard Many Bears’ land on the Blood reserve. The winter sweat lodge is an annual event that is organized by the FNMI Centre at Lethbridge College to allow any student who wishes to participate in the opportunity to cleanse themselves while learning about the native culture.
“The FNMI Centre hold four sweats a year, fall, winter, spring and summer,” says Nadine Eagle Child, FNMI student adviser who co-ordinated the event. “The purpose of the sweat is to give the students a sense of renewal and connection with their spirituality.”
In native culture the purpose of the sweat is to “honour the creator and the spirits of our existence on earth,” says Addison Crow Spreads His Wings, one of the four native elders who performed the ritual.
“It brings everything into context, theology, logic, history, everything. It is one of the main intricate parts of being a culture, a society, and a race of people. It’s one of our main instruments in our belief systems that were handed down through generations and generations.”
Steven Kowalchuk, a first-year Correctional Studies student at Lethbridge College, said he couldn’t wait for the sweat to happen and at the end he has happy that he made the effort.
“I feel like I was rejuvenated,” says Kowalchuk. “It’s nothing like I ‘ve ever experienced in my life.”
According to Crow Spreads His Wings, sweats aren’t just conducted when someone is sick or during certain times of the year. Each sweat has its own protocols depending on what native society you belong to.
The sweat is one of the most important spiritual rituals for native culture, according to Crow Spreads His Wings.
“It’s as important as you are breathing right now without our culture, without our core values and the intricate parts that make us who we are, we cannot exist or survive in today’s society.”
The heat created within the sweat comes from the steam produced off of hot rocks, which have been heated in a fire.
A certain number of rocks are brought into the lodge each round by the person designated as the “fire keeper”.
The first round was a cleansing round. “We cleanse ourselves of our inept humanness during this cleansing process, so that we can be closer to the creator, by our prayers and by our meditations,” says Crow Spreads His Wings.
“The first round was very emotionally draining,” says Jane Collin from Lethbridge College who claimed the elders’ encouragement throughout the process was a big help in making it through the process.
“As soon of the door closes, it’s pretty intense because it’s completely black,” says Kristin Poch, an anthropology student from the University of Lethbridge.
The second round is where you honour your prayer requests and why you are there.
The third round functions as a doctoring and healing round while the last one was the closing round.
“It’s a very emotional one for any elder, that’s when we are closing the sweat again. Were sending the spirits back and the Creator is given thanks for that little time we had with them and that’s what keeps us on the right road or red road the spiritual path.”
The winter sweat lodge was open an invite for any person who wanted to participate.