Vanuatu sculpture

In Port Vila (Vanuatu's capital) I found a gallery selling Vanuatu sculpture. Most of what is being sold there (so the owner told me) is not created for the tourist trade. The object he sells are made for initiation ceremonies (like circumcision) and would normally be later discarded. Some of the initiated decide to earn a few bob and sell them instead.

Navajo dress

Navajo traditional dress has nothing to do with feathers, buckskin or fringes, in fact it has nothing to do with what we may imagine to be Indian. It seems to include a lot of velvet and one can guess it developed late in the 19^th century, after the tribe settled in the reservation. Similarly, Navajo traditional dance has nothing to do with what one can see at powwows. The Navajo dance in pairs and in a circle. One can see it at Navajo Fair that takes place every year at Window Rock, the capital of their reservation. Navajo Traditional Dance is one of the events at the week-long fair. This is where these pictures were taken in summer 2013.  

Navajo pow wow

Powwow is a cultural event of the modern North American Indians. It is a music and dance event, loosely based on traditions of Ojibwa and Sioux peoples. However, modern powwows are modern, music amplified, some of the dances and dresses designed not that long ago. For example the now ubiquitous jingle dress (and dance) was introduced by the Ojibwa in 1930ties, whereas equally popular shawl dance (and dress) is even later, introduced in the 1960ties by the Sioux.

The modern powwow is a kind of pan-Indian movement, spreading far beyond Ojibwa and Sioux areas. It seems that all reservations have an ambition to throw a great powwow once a year and visitors from other reservations are invited. Whites are also welcome, but not many come, the music being as alien to the white ear as it could possibly be.

The pictures below were taken at the great Navajo powwow in summer 2013 in Window Rock, the capital of their reservation. By the way, the powwow dress has nothing to do with the traditional dress (and dance) of the Navajo.

Moose Cree Indians

Here are some pictures to show that there actually are some people living in Moosonee and Moose Factory. I am told that 80% of the population there are Cree Indians.

Moose Cree Indian Reserve in Northern Ontario.

Moosonee is a town on the shore of Moose River. It is the Northern terminus of a railway, you can get there quite easily from Toronto. This is about as far as you can get easily. There are no roads there. There is a college and a cathedral there. All notices are written in two languages (at least). Cree language has its own alphabet. Across the river (which is VERY wide) there is a town called

Moose Factory, the earliest factory of the Hudson Bay Company. This is where the Moose Cree Indian Reserve is located.

New York Reflections

No comments needed here, I guess. These are views of New York that anybody who has been there could see. Few people take any notice, though. Perhaps you need a lens of a camera to actually notice it. All these pictures are from Midtown area, somewhere around 42^nd Street, 5^th Avenue. On one of the pictures you can see St Patrick Cathedral, on another Grand Central Station (can you spot it?).

Boca de Mamiraua

The village of Boca de Mamiraua lies in an inner delta between Japura and Solimoes rivers, in the middle of Amazonia. This area is flooded every year so the houses have to be built on stilts. Sometimes there is unusually high water anyway, one can see a watermark on houses and trees. There is an evangelical church in the middle of the village where church music is played with electric guitars. There is no shortage of fish in the area, some are too big to be consumed fresh and are dried like washing on a line. The people there say they are not Indians but caboclos, the river people. 

One thing to note: these days one can roughly estimate the latitude of a place if a satellite dish is in the picture. The satellite is stationary and as such it has to be over the equator. Amazon is almost on the equator so the dishes face directly up.