Hundreds of residents and out-of-town visitors attended the Woodland Cultural Centre’s Smoke Dance Competition on Saturday, August 16, 2025.
While the organization has been hosting the event throughout the last 50 years, this past weekend marked the third annual competition since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jake Jamieson, the Woodland Cultural Centre’s Artistic and Programming Director, said that the event isn’t just a competition, but a celebration of culture for the whole family.
“Today is our annual smoke dance celebration and so we’ve brought our communities together to share our cultural knowledges, our cultural dances and our artists, to showcase the wonderful art of smoke dancing,” he said. “It’s really become not just a community affair, but a whole family affair too, and I’ve had people I know already coming to tell me that they’re very happy with how the event has come together, especially on such a hot day.”
While there are many dance styles among Indigenous people, the smoke dance is different from those you may see at Pow Wow like the Fancy, Jingle, Traditional or Grass dances.
“What sets the smoke dance apart from other styles of dance is that it’s unique to the Haudenosaunee culture,” said Jamieson. “And what characterizes this dance is the quick drumming and a certain style of singing. Sometimes in competition settings, there will be trick songs and those are things that kind of trip you up and can sort of set you apart in the group, so that’s what makes the competition setting really exciting.”
During the event there were also a host of marketplace vendors set up to sell their wares. From jewellery to keychains, dream catchers, art and more, there were plenty of opportunities to support the local artists or visit one of the various information booths on site.
“We’ve got well over 45 vendors here today and we’ve got everything from visual art, moccasin making and dream catchers, we’ve got painting and beadwork,” said Jamieson. “There’s really a whole gambit of artists and we’re so happy to have everybody with us here today.”
Over on the front lawn, 100 dancers eagerly awaited the chance to display their intricate moves and their colourful regalia.
Levi Skye, MC for the event, opened the event with a Thanksgiving Address before welcoming both dancers and visitors of all ages to partake in a social dance.
“I encourage anybody that’s even just in the crowd, whether you’re unfamiliar with the dance or if you’ve seen it before, to get up and come shake a leg and join us because these dances, they’re meant to pick up our souls and make us feel happy,” he said. “These songs were made on earth, by the people of earth, for the enjoyment of us on earth, so we encourage everybody to come up and enjoy themselves.”
As the competition later got underway, dancers competed in five different age groups including tiny tot (five-years-old and under), junior (six to 12-years-old), teen (13 to 17-years-old), adults (18 to 44-years-old) and golden age (45-plus). All ages were eligible to win a cash prize and even the youngsters went home with $5.00.
“I think my favourite part of the day has to be the tiny tot dancers. It’s such a crowd pleaser that everyone loves, especially because they’re learning,” said Jamieson. “That’s what’s beautiful about the Smoke Dance, it’s a learned sort of dance and it’s learned by watching your elders. It’s cute because you can see that the kids sort of pick up on the little things that the older generation is doing and then they’ll try to practice it themselves.”
While there were many close calls resulting in several tie breakers, judges were able to narrow down and award the first, second and third place winners of each age category.
After the competition was wrapped, several youngsters in the junior and teen categories took the opportunity to participate in the switch dance competition.
The dancers were all smiles as they switched regalia with their sisters, brothers, cousins and friends for a chance to better understand each other’s dance styles.
Cecelia Sky, one of the many Six Nations dancers who participated in the competition, said she’s been dancing for as long as she can remember, and that she always enjoys traveling around for different competitions.
“I’ve been dancing for forever and it’s just fun,” she said. “I really enjoy getting to travel all over the place, sharing our culture and educating non-Natives. That’s something my family has always done and I’ll continue to keep doing that, and continue to keep dancing and moving for as long as I can.”
When asked what her favourite part of the day was, Sky also said it was seeing the tiny tot dancers.
“That’s our future generation, and today was just awesome because there were so many of them out there… it was really sweet,” she said.
With the competition taking place on the grounds of the former Mohawk Institute Residential School, Jamieson said that the whole event was truly a testament to the resiliency of Indigenous people.
“It means so much to the emotional and spiritual well-being of our people, to be on the site of a place where things like dancing and even speaking our language were taken away, that we come back to the site and reinvigorate the culture and share it,” he said. “And not just share it with our own community members, but with folks from other First Nations communities that have driven in to participate, in addition to the surrounding Brantford community as well. We always encourage people to come out to events such as these, to learn to understand and to just have a better appreciation for the experience of our Six Nations of the Grand River community and their neighbours.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
