Hobiiyee is a celebration held to celebrate the “Nisg̱a’a
new year”. This New Year occurs at the
end of February, where a star shines above the quarter moon. The four clans and surrounding nations,
including the Tsimsham, Wet’su’weten, Haisla and Gitx̱san also attend from
neighbouring cities and villages. We
travelled there a bit later in the celebration, and arrived about 3:30pm. The hall was packed with about 800 people,
and there were signs everywhere with what nations were attending. In the middle, there was a huge moon that was
painted with glow-in-the-dark paint, and I’ve been told that it shined; the
star above it was glistened with gold.
The whole aspect of a Hobiiyee dance is to sing songs in
Nisg̱a’a (or correct applicable language), maintain traditional stories, and
dance to describe and tell the stories.
The gender roles are noted in the dances, with the men and the women
being separated from each other. The men
are in three categories: drummers,
blanket dancers, and those dressed up to represent the stories. This
maybe either a creature such as a wolf, raven, bear, etc. or if there is one
song is about fertility, then a man may dress up as a woman, and lure in
another man to dance with him. The women
are lined up in about three rows next to the first line of the strongest
drummers, creating an acute angle. From
what I noticed, the women (when I was performing) tended to represent water. Their movements of the women were fluid with
their voices being higher, and can drown out the male voices. The dancing when the women were going around
were like soft waves, calming the intensity of the drummers and the
dancers. This gave the performance a
gentle feel that I had enjoyed. Making
the simile was dry, because the Gitwinksihlkw women were carrying around fish
as well, to represent the spawning.
The Wet’su’wet’en were the first nation who I saw performing
properly, and they had a small group of about ten people. They explained all their songs to the people,
and the crowd was quite loud for their performance. I felt curious, because they had explained
about their history, as they had lost a lot of people, and they were starting
to be revived in their population. They
couldn’t play all of their songs, or perform their dancers, since many of them
were lost with the residential schools, and people of more than one nation were
choosing another nation over the Wet’su’wet’en.
The dancers had mesmerized me for the first few hours, I
never paid too much attention to who may have been singing or dancing, but
there was always something going on. The
beating of the drums and the voices made powerful within a capella were
ironically pacifying, because the songs and dances had told a story. If the groups had someone who was willing to
share, they would explain the song, and the story behind the song. The Gitwinksihlkw, and a few other groups
also had an elder speak in Nisg̱a’a to explain deeper in meaning.
Some people wore regalia of an innate fashion, with some wearing
taxidermed bear of wolf skins. These
were sometimes younger or teenage men that would act as the animal. The men whose regalia was a wolfskin would
dance around in circles, trying to find their pray, and even howling as the
wolf would. The bears generally danced
around in circles, lifting their head up so often. The blanket dancers would dance around the
animals, usually acting similar to small birds that keep restrained to a
certain area. The other people, who
dressed up, as a wolf would be wearing a costume made with a wooden mask
representing the creature. The eyeholes
would be small, but the abalone shell representing the eyes makes the mask
shine.
The main part that I
remembered about the evening was when I performed. I was loaned a drum and an Eagle crest that
consisted of a beaver and a stick on the back of the shirt. Changed into black shorts, and my ’regalia’
was ready. Went on stage, and had
specific instructions. The females came
out at the same time as we did, and we went into our respected places. There were many speeches before each song in
Nisg̱a’a from the same elder, and even if they never understood, people still
mostly listened. Because the songs that
I knew were performed the evening before, I hadn’t practiced the songs that
were sung, because I was in Prince George.
I listened, and copied the movement of the drums, and tried to pronounce
the words. I know I did well. There was a lot of stamina used while
drumming, simply because the same movements are preformed over and over. The women were getting tired also, the third
song had them dancing with fish in many circles and non-complex, but repetitive
movements. Regardless of people being
tired, their best was given, and it was shown by the determination that the
people had. We had one song, as mentioned earlier where one of the members had
dressed up as a woman. He led the host
into the middle of the stage and showed how he wanted to dance with him. It was really unexpected, and the crowd
roared with laughter and applause.
Hobiiyee was quite enjoyable, with seeing many dancers and
singers. It gave a sense of community,
and diversified opinions about one subject, even what Hobiiyee is truly
about. It was pleasurable that the four
villages were able to get together for a positive celebration, and were able to
showcase a small bit of what Nisg̱a’a culture truly is.
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