VGFN Archives

Bhangra in Old Crow (Yukon) by Chief Dana Tizya-Tramm and Gurdeep Pandher

Old Crow Chief Dana Tizya-Tramm and Gurdeep Pandher, together, dance the Punjabi traditional dance, Bhangra, to celebrate friendships in Yukon communities, and to spread happiness across Canada.

Old Crow is the home of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation (VGFN) people. The language originally spoken by the VGFN people is Gwich’in. Old Crow is the most northerly community in the Canadian Yukon Territory, and it is the place where Crow River and Porcupine River meet.

Old Crow is isolated from the other surrounding communities in the area, and it is accessible only by plane or canoe. It is said to be an amazing experience making the canoe trip down the Porcupine River, which you gain access to from the Eagle River, which is located just off the North’s Dempster Highway.

Chief Dana Tizya-Tramm, the head of the VGFN Government, is considered to be the youngest First Nation Chief in the Yukon. He made national headlines by declaring “Climate Emergency” in the Old Crow community, which made them the first northern community to do this. This declaration made by Chief Dana Tizya-Tramm went on to inspire many other communities and organizations across Canada to follow suit.

Bhangra is the traditional folk dance of Punjab, which was developed many centuries ago by Punjabi-Sikh farmers. Back when agricultural farming was completed manually, and therefore a very exhausting, laborious process, the farmers of Punjab created Bhangra dancing to bring joy into their difficult farming lives. Being a very high-energy activity itself though, Bhangra dancing is also a great workout and fitness activity.

Awesome 🤘🏽 https://t.co/UXVrPT6Txl

— Peter Johnston (@CYFN_GrandChief) September 5, 2019

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Extremely here for this. Bhangra in Old Crow! https://t.co/7WV5VbfXQC

— Eva Holland (@evaholland) September 4, 2019

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Please enjoy the Bhangra dancing by Gurdeep Pandher and Chief Dana Tizya-Tramm! Share a true labour of love too!

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Wonderful to share Punjabi Bhangra dance with the people of Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation.

Do you know there is a place in far-north, where only 250 people live, and where there is no road which connects it to the outside world.

Name of that little village is called Old Crow.

Went to Watson Lake, Haines Junction, Dawson City, and Old Crow to spread happiness of Bhangra dancing.

Wonderful to do it in the far-north community of Old Crow, the world which not connected via a single road to the outside world.

Elders and local unit of RCMP and social services people also came to attend.

Building cultural bridges, bringing East close to far-north, It makes unknown familiar in a wonderful way. Sometimes unknown can be a major root-cause of fear. So let us come closer.

Also, dancing is just good for good mental and physical health. Research shows dancing can improve your mental health by boosting your overall happiness.

It also makes one world.

A big shutout to Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation Government (VGFN) making this happen!

It’s all a labour of love:

Gurdeep’s videos have, collectively, been watched over fifty million times from various platforms. His work has been published/used by The Governor-General of Canada, Canadian High Commissions, The Prime Minister of Canada, Air Canada, Department of Canadian National Defence, Royal Canadian Navy, RCMP, Department of Canadian Heritage, BBC News, CBC, The Globe and Mail, CTV News, USA Today, SBS Australia, Toronto Star, Twitter Moments Canada, diverse media and community organizations.