Efforts underway to bring accessibility to cultural spaces in Wabanaki communities

Cultural spaces aren't always the easiest for Zachary Paul, who uses a wheelchair, to enter. 

For example, a few years ago, his drum brothers had to carry the Jamaican and Wolastoqew man up a flight of stairs to get into a cultural centre so he could drum. 

The space has since been renovated and now has an elevator for accessibility purposes, but Paul, who said he finds healing through music, says more cultural spaces should be accessible.

"As somebody that was removed from my community and placed with a non-Native family in foster care, I felt like I was stripped of part of who I was," said Paul, who is from Sitansisk, or St. Mary's First Nation, near Fredericton.

"Being able to come back into the community and learn about who I was and where I came from was big." 

The 31-year-old man was born with cerebral palsy and started using a wheelchair at the age of two. 

He said his time in foster care caused a lot of anger in him but he's been on a road to reclaiming his culture.

Paul is a member of the Muskrat Singers, a Wolastoqey drum group based in Sitansisk, and said his drum group and the community they come from are always willing to make accessibility accommodations, but it's not always easy to ask for help because he values his independence. 

Paul said he experiences trouble accessing some sweat lodges because some are too low to accommodate his chair's height and additional planning is required to access those traditional spaces.

"The ability to just go, the convenience to just go would be big instead of having to rely on somebody else," said Paul.

Opolahsomuwehs (Imelda Perley) is a Wolastoqew grandmother who holds ceremony in the six Wolastoqey communities in New Brunswick. 

In holding those ceremonies she realized the challenges elders and people with mobility-related needs can face. Her uncle Ray Nicholas found a solution for the sweat lodge.  

"He built me one that was high enough that you could actually wheel the person in," she said.

"He weaved it with cedar and pine boughs and I'm not kidding you, that lodge was amazing."

The lodge doubles as a learning centre when sweats weren't hosted. 

Opolahsomuwehs said she works with the community health centre in Neqotkuk, or Tobique First Nation, to identify people who may need ceremony, so she and her team can make house calls to hold ceremonies where people need it.

Making powwow grounds level

Kevin Levi, a band councillor and powwow co-ordinator at Metepenagiag Mi'kmaq Nation about 130 kilometres north of Moncton, said he also hears concerns about accessibility and is working to make the powwow more inclusive.

"[Their needs] weren't being met at our powwow unfortunately but now since being in that meeting and being more aware, I'm trying to tackle it," said Levi.

He said there are plans to make the powwow grounds even and level, add accessible bathrooms, bring in a sign language interpreter and bring in ear protection for people with autism to help prevent sensory overload

Levi said funding may be a challenge to making powwows more accessible but it's about ensuring everybody can come and enjoy themselves.

"Powwows are about gathering everybody and we can't exclude a small percentage of people," said Levi.