Guy Molin's Bio
Co-founder of Northern Connections Inc.
My
Story - What Dancing has done for me.
When I was young, I never really stayed in one place for too long, because my father was a pilot traveling much and we were always moving. I originally come from a small northern community called 'Pukatawagan'. This was where my mother was from and where I was first introduced to the Pow-Wow and my native culture. This is also when I first became a grass dancer, but I wasn’t always a grass dancer my whole life. I first started dancing when I was about six. But I also got pulled out of dancing when I was around fourteen, because it was thought to be wrong, evil. The reason was because my father being a Christian and what he grew up learning, what I did and danced for was wrong.
From there I was told just to leave what I had learned and forget about what I did for the last eight years. And so that was the start of my down fall and I didn’t know what to think or do because I was doing these things for a long time now and was very good at them. So I had to learn to change my ways, but I still felt very confused about all the things that were going on around me.
When I turned fifteen years old I left my parents’ house to go to school in The Pas. I got sponsored and ended up renting an apartment with my brother and another roommate. So with no parental control I started drinking and doing drugs and just doing a bunch of stupid things. Life was beginning to be a little difficult, but I didn’t care because I was still a child with almost no rules and what kid wouldn’t like that?
It wasn’t until I was eighteen that I took a good look at where I was and going in life. By this time my parents had moved back to The Pas, so I decided to move back in with them. I knew they would help me stay out of trouble. Even though I moved back in with my parents, I ended up doing all the dumb things I did before. So I still felt the same way I did before I left my parents and moved back in.
That’s when my father met a native Christian ministry called the HUNDRED & TWENTY DRUMS OF THUNDER. It’s a group of First Nations believers that travels all over the world, showcasing native culture with 120 drums and a number of traditional native dancers with a Christian view. From that point on it became all right to go back to most of my old ways, because it opened my father’s eyes to a new world. From all this I started to dance again and that lost feeling I had disappeared.
It took four years until I was able to start dancing again from when I got of it. Even though I haven't danced for so long, it wasn’t hard to get back into it again, because it’s like riding a bike. Once you learn you never forget.
From my dancing I got to do a lot of traveling with the group. I went to places like Belfast, Ireland, Los Angeles, Alaska, and even Rwanda. I also got to see and hear expressions of people other Tribal peoples on these trips and learn what they thought of our native culture.
From all this I don’t regret anything, because I feel all
my past made me stronger today. Because I started dancing again, I stopped
drinking and doing drugs, because if I continued to do those things I
wouldn’t be able to travel on any of these trips. I also learned to save and
plan ahead because these trips cost money and time. I also feel that I could
use my dancing into full-time ministry, but i have to finish high school.
Then I could proceed to a discipleship school, like YWAM (Youth with a
Mission) and see where I go from there. So all and all if I didn’t move back
in with my parents and get back into dancing I would still be doing all the
same things I did before. I feel I would still be unmotivated to do anything
and probably still feel that empty spot in my life if I didn’t meet my
Creator who gave me my gift of dancing.
Guy Molin
Missinippi Cree Grass Dancer
StatCounter
All rights Reserved 2011©