St. Mary's dancer shares his passion at Eel Ground Powwow
In a former life, working the front desk of a gym in downtown Fredericton, I met Percy Sacobie.
He always came in talking about whatever he was involved with next — but I had no idea what a beautiful dancer he was.
During the Eel Ground Powwow this past weekend I ran into Sacobie during Saturday's Grand Entry.
Sacobie hails from St. Mary's and does his best to attend six or seven powwows a year — taking his family with him.
He performs what is called men's traditional.
"The dance is about telling a story. They are on a hunting party or preparing for war. If you look closely you can see how they use their bodies communicate," said Sacobie.
A Moncton man, Joe Bonnevie, who spends his summers traveling to every powwow across the East Coast, was full of stories and seemed to know every single person at the powwow that weekend.
He called Sacobie one of the best dancers he's ever seen.
"He's considered one of the top dancers," said Bonnevie, "He's amazing."
"A lot of people ask me why I dance," said Sacobie. "I do it because it feels good. Here you can let loose and not worry about what you look like when you dance."
His regalia, which he made himself, is a complex work of beading and feathers — feathers on his headdress and on his back, and carrying feathers. All of them are from eagles.
"We get them from the Department of Transportation, when they (the eagles) are found dead from getting electrocuted on phone lines or things like that," he explained, since the birds cannot be hunted.
Feathers from golden eagles make up the traditional bustle on his back — a beautiful ring of feathers. And he carried more bald eagle feathers in his hand.
"The feathers are fairly simple to put together — it takes a couple of hours."
Then there is the intricate beading which covers his body — it took two years to complete.
This is Sacobie's second outfit.
The first he passed down to his son, who now dances, too. Many outfits do become family heirlooms.
Joey Peter Paul is 14 now, so he just recently grew into it. But he is also working on his own garb.
"I gave him everything I have," said Sacobie. "It is coming together a little bit at a time."
Sacobie has handed down more than his regalia.
He has handed down a tradition.
"At one time [dancing] was against the law — but it is accepted now," he said.
Because of the suppression of his culture in the past, he did not grow up with a family who took part in big events like this ... because there were no big events.
But he said his dad always did love to dance.
Now Sacobie is able to take the tradition one step further and create new experiences for his children.
"This is something I started — something that I can pass down to my family."
Reporter Laura MacInnis covers the court beat and is exploring Miramichi arts and culture in this column.
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