Experiencing culture and connection at Onion Lake Powwow
Two staff from our Family Treatment Program (FTP) recently attended the annual Onion Lake Powwow—an experience that deepened their understanding of the families they work with and highlighted the importance of cultural celebration and connection.
FTP is designed to support families in staying together safely. It provides parents with resources to strengthen communication and coping skills, address trauma and addiction, and improve overall family well-being. The goal is to prevent children from coming into care or to support reunification after a child has been in care.
Dawn Ziffle, program manager, has worked at Ranch Ehrlo for 15 years and joined FTP in early 2023. She was drawn to the event after hearing past FTP participants speak about it with pride and enthusiasm.
“Throughout my time with the agency, I’ve met many people from Onion Lake,” she said. “Families who completed the program and returned home have often told us how awesome the Onion Lake Powwow is and that FTP should go. This year, we did.”
Dawn said it was meaningful to reconnect with one family who had completed the program and returned to the community. “They were so excited to see us and couldn’t believe we made the trip up,” she said. “One was working at the powwow, and the other was watching her sister dance.”
Although Dawn has attended powwows in urban centres, this was her first on a reserve.
“The energy was different. You could see families from babies to kokums. It felt safe and welcoming,” she said. “It reminded me that when families come to us, they’re often out of their comfort zone—and so was I, in a good way.”
Shruti Goudar, a family preservation therapist, has worked at Ranch Ehrlo for nearly five years. She said the trip was a chance to deepen connections with families she’s worked with and to engage in a shared cultural experience with a community where she has worked with several families.
She said, “Attending the powwow was an opportunity to learn more about the community I serve, and to be in a space where connection is built through shared experience.”
Shruti described the atmosphere as one where everyone played a role in creating meaning for the community.
“I left with a profound sense of the strength, resilience, and beauty that lives within this community,” she said.
She added that the powwow offered a valuable reminder about the role of community in raising children.
“Many of the families we serve live in places where children are at the centre of everything, where connection and collective care flow naturally toward them,” she said. “Being there was a living example of the true essence of ‘it takes a village’.”
Both staff said attending cultural events like the powwow is an important way for non-Indigenous staff to build relationships, broaden their perspective, and honour the traditions of the Treaty land they work on.
