This year marked the 15th anniversary of the Natives at Penn annual powwow. Co-founders Megan Red Shirt-Shaw and Paul Garr celebrated the milestone and the tradition of Native fellowship, community building, and education.
2 min. read
When Megan Red Shirt-Shaw and Paul Garr founded the Natives at Penn powwow in 2009, they hoped—but couldn’t know for sure—that the rich cultural celebrations would still continue 15 years later. In April, that’s precisely what happened at the annual event: A community gathering of dance, drum groups, Native regalia, artwork, and a chance to learn more about Native cultures.
This year’s powwow took place in the Hall of Flags and was co-hosted by the Albert M. Greenfield Intercultural Center.
(Image: Kia Lor)
“Seeing the powwow still going strong makes me so emotional and grateful,” says Red Shirt-Shaw, who is an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota.
The campus powwow originated a decade and a half ago on a car ride to the All-Ivy Native Conference at Cornell University. The driver, Mia King, turned to the duo and asked them to take over leadership of Penn’s student organization representing Native and Indigenous students, which was called Six Directions at the time, upon her graduation.
“It was one of those life-changing moments,” says Red Shirt-Shaw, who majored in English with a concentration in creative writing. “Paul and I had just met that day, but this was the beginning of a deep friendship and leadership partnership.”
Garr, who has Canadian Anishinaabe heritage and majored in international relations and East Asian studies, agrees. “I was the year above Megan, and we quickly agreed that one of the big things we wanted to do before either of us graduated was start a powwow,” he says. “We decided to call it the annual powwow not knowing whether it would continue, but with a lot of hope in our hearts that it would.”
Natives at Penn is dedicated to increasing awareness of Native and Indigenous culture, history, and contemporary issues, while enhancing the visibility of Native and Indigenous students on campus, which exists on Lenape land. When Red Shirt-Shaw and Garr took over leadership, they committed to this mission and expanded it to include not just Penn’s campus, but the city of Philadelphia writ large.
“In Pennsylvania, unfortunately, there’s been erasure of Native peoples, perhaps because colonization reached Native people earlier,” she says, noting that she didn’t meet another Native student her entire first year at Penn. “This is why it’s been so special to be part of a legacy of increasing visibility and connecting Native students and community members to one another on campus.”
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