FUN, FOOD AND FASHION
Folkfest a chance to show cultural traditions
Saskatoon Folkfest has been providing food, fashions and fun to the general public for 40 years and this year, 17 pavilions are operating throughout the city until midnight Saturday.
“We’ve been running the Indian and Métis Pavilion here at the Indian and Métis Friendship Centre (SIMFC) for 39 years,” said ambassador Vernon Linklater, crediting May Henderson with coming up with the idea after the first Folkfest.
“She said, ‘We should have our own pavilion,’ and that was it, the next year we did.”
On Friday afternoon, Henderson was busy in the kitchen getting ready for the evening’s crowd, but Maryann Napope, who is not only a volunteer but also on the SIMFC board, paused from her bannock-making to share a few thoughts.
“I enjoy it, I love the staff here and I love the people that come here, and I love that we showcase our traditional culture and our traditional foods,” Napope said, reminiscing that her grandmother used to make 10 or 11 rounds of bannock every day to feed her grandchildren.
“Bannock-making has been in my family for a long, long time.”
Napope says she makes at least 10 rounds of a large recipe of bannock every day at Folkfest, saying some people “just come for the bannock,” baked and fried.
New this year are bannock bites: bite-sized rounds fried and dipped in brown sugar and cinnamon.
Pavilion manager Sanford Strongarm says the pavilion is rich with culture and tradition, passing from generation to generation.
One example is Métis Mya, who first attended as an infant and now, at six years old, publicly jigs with her fiddling dad, Dallas Fiddler Boyer, and his dad, guitarist Phil Boyer.
In Strongarm’s family it’s much the same: they have all been raised to dance traditionally and share their culture.
Not far from where Napope was making bannock, the Japanese pavilion at the Lion’s Arena was getting set up.
That pavilion is sharing space with the Chinese and Cameroon pavilions and this year all three are jointly offering something new: a craft from each culture that can easily be taught to all ages.
“This year, we have a children’s centre, and we have someone there teaching how to do easy origami,” said Asami Zimmer, president of the Saskatoon Japanese Association.
The pavilion is in its second year; it used to be a part of the Asian Pacific pavilion, but decided to expand into an exclusively Japanese experience.
Demonstrations offered include martial arts, sword displays and archery. Bartari is running a video game station, while Zimmer is busy each day in the kitchen preparing items like sushi, sake and a fun novelty treat: Wasabi Roulette. For $5, you get five cream puffs, but one of them is filled with wasabi paste.
Zimmer says it’s great to see second and third generations joining in with passing on Japanese culture to others.
“My daughter’s only 11, and she’s already saying she loves Folkfest,” Zimmer says.