Native women were told not to smudge sweetgrass

Monday, March 3, 2008  

A group of Native women who were meeting in Winnipeg, Manitoba, were told they couldn't hold a smudging ceremony at a local hotel, CBC News reports.

The Native Women's Association of Canada and the Elizabeth Fry Society were meeting to discuss violence against Native women. But they were told by the Hampton Inn not to burn sweetgrass for the smudging ceremony.

The hotel relented after the women threatened to hold the ceremony outside. "Twenty-five years ago we were having this kind of fight, so I've been through this once already," Patricia Monture Angus, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan, told CBC News.

Staff at the hotel said they were concerned the smudging could set off the smoke alarms, which didn't happen when the women were allowed to burn the sweetgrass.

Get the Story:
Ruckus raised over native ceremony at Winnipeg hotel (CBC 2/29)

$rl Native Women's Association of Canada - http://www.nwac-hq.org
Elizabeth Fry Society - http://www.elizabethfry.ca