Birth Ceremony for Our Hand Drums

The students and I were very excited to participate in a ceremony to birth our new hand drums.  We were very fortunate to have Roberta Oshkabewisens facilitate and explain the ceremony for us.  

Roberta laid out a blanket and we sat around it in a circle with our drums.  She began the ceremony by having us smudge.  She shared with us additional drum teachings.  She explained that the drum is both male and female.  The wood frame is male and the hide is female.  The hide is like a dress.  The lacing represents family and/or community and we need to hold it together (I hope I remembered that correctly!)

Roberta then smudged each drum.  

Tobacco was placed on the drums and each of us was asked "What do you see?"  Roberta explained that what we saw in the tobacco would tell the story of our drums.

The drums were feasted with strawberries.  We each took a strawberry and fed our drums by rubbing the strawberry on it.  

We put the tobacco, strawberry, and umbibical cord (the remaining string) from the drum and wrapped it in a red cloth.  We would put the bundle on the north side of a tree later.

Roberta picked up her drum and sand the Eagle Song to each of our drums.  We then sang a song together.

It was an amazing experience.

* I had asked permission to take photos before we began the ceremony.