An aboriginal spiritual event of great cultural significance is about to be held in the NWT for the first time. A sun dance will take place about 30 km west of Fort Smith in an area known as the Fox Holes from Aug. 16-24.The purification ceremony involves dancing, fasting, drumming, singing, praying and visions. "It's a very personal thing," explained organizer Wanbdi Wakita, of Yellowknife. "It's very sacred."

Wakita said a sun dance originally meant looking at the sun and dancing without food and water for four days.

Wanbdi Wakita and his wife, Rita Chretien, stand behind a large buffalo-hide drum he has made for a sun dance near Fort Smith. John Curran/NNSL photo

However, he said, while there is still fasting for four days, most participants in such ceremonies now don't look at the sun.

"I encourage them to look at everything - the trees, the sky, the universe," he said.

A Fort Smith resident, who has attended sun dances in the south, said it is an amazing ceremony to take part in.

"It's very difficult to describe," said the person, who did not wish to be identified. "It can be very profound."

The Fort Smith resident said the experience is so deeply personal that most people do not wish to talk about it afterwards.

The sun dance is practiced by members of many First Nations in southern Canada and the U.S., including the Cree, Sioux, Blackfoot and Navajo.

Wakita is not sure how many people will attend the NWT's first sun dance.

"I'm not deciding who's going to come," he said. "They come on their own."

However, he is aware of some people who plan to come from B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the U.S., along with others from the NWT.

"There's going to be lots of people there," he said.

Some people take a whole year to prepare for a sun dance, he added.

"You have to be very, very clear," Wakita said. "You have to be clean. You can't take alcohol and drugs and go the next day. You have to be clean and sober."

Wakita advises anyone who wishes to participate to first speak to him about their physical and emotional readiness for the experience.

"You just don't jump into something like this," he said.

Wakita said a sun dance helps a person emotionally, spiritually, mentally and physically.

"The purpose of the sun dance is to sacrifice yourself for those four days and to give thanks and to give prayers for all the people that you know," he explained.

Wakita, who is originally from the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation in Manitoba, has participated in a sun dance for each of the last 41 years.

Anyone, not just aboriginal people, can participate, he said, noting the ceremony is also about peace and reconciliation.

People are also welcomed to observe the sun dance, he said stressing, "This is a very sacred thing, but it's not a show."

Wakita, a 65-year-old retiree, has been working four years to organize the ceremony after having a vision that he should do so.

Once begun, sun dances are held for four consecutive years.