'Challenging' canoe trip helps local sisters connect with ancestors

A local Moose Cree woman recently had the chance to visit her First Nation the way her ancestors did – by paddling hundreds of kilometres down two northern Ontario rivers.

Oro-Medonte’s Mackenzie Taylor, along with her sister, Avery, were part of a recent canoe trip that sent a dozen Moose Cree youth from around Ontario on a journey from Kapuskasing all the way up to Moose Factory, a community near the coast of James Bay in Moose Cree First Nation.

“Not growing up in my home community, it was just something that I really wanted to experience, to get to see it,” Taylor, 23, told Village Media. “I have family that lives up north, but have never gotten the chance to go up to Moose Factory.”

After a decade in the works, the Neemamo Mishkanan trip – meaning ‘We Canoe Together’ in the Moose Cree language – took place from Aug.13-20 and saw the youth paddle around 200 kilometres through the Moose Cree Homeland, down the Mattagami and Moose rivers, on an ancestral canoe route.

Joined by First Nation organizers, a Moose Cree knowledge keeper, science partners from the Wildlife Conservation Society Canada and others, youth were given the opportunity to learn traditional teachings, conservation practices, navigation, and more.

Although there were breaks, the days could be challenging, with canoes hitting the water in the morning and pulling into camp late in the afternoon, with some days marked by strong headwinds that made progress difficult.

“It was definitely really hard, working through a lot of sore muscles, as well as blisters on your hands and stuff,” Taylor told Village Media. “(On some days) we had headwinds that were pretty strong, so that definitely made it a challenge.”

For Taylor, who’s spent most of her life in Simcoe County, the challenges were well worth it, giving her a coveted chance to travel through her ancestral lands and also gain first-hand appreciation for the trips her ancestors took.

"It helped us to be like, 'Wow, this would be super challenging to be doing this,'" she said. "While on the trip, too, you think about your ancestors doing it before you, and you kind of feel like they're with you on the journey."

Beyond the trip itself, Taylor said she forged new connections, with both the land and her fellow travellers, that she’ll carry throughout her life.

“I think that we really built these amazing relationships with everybody that came on,” she said. “We got to go through so much together, and it's something that I think is going to shape me and the way I move forward, forever,” she said.

Taylor highlighted how little human impact she saw along the week-long paddle, adding it helped her consider her relationship with the land and how it should be respected moving forward.

“Just being that far away from people and civilization was really, really, impactful – just getting to be with nature and learn about the river,” she said. “Building that connection and taking time to sit with it is so impactful, and I think it's something that everybody should get to experience.”

At the tail end of the trip, the youth were greeted by a welcome party in Moose Factory, where they spent some time with the community before leaving via train in nearby Moosonee.

“Community members, a lot of family members, were waiting on the shore for us when we arrived, so we got to be welcomed in by the sounds of horns honking, and people were holding up signs, which was really cool,” she said. “We had a feast, and then we got to spend some time just being in the community.”

After leaving Moosonee, Taylor’s mooshum (grandfather) met her in Cochrane, and she said the trip provided her with new ways to connect with family, as well.

“It's something that was so exciting to be able to share with my family, and get to talk about different parts of the trip with my mooshum and my mom,” she said.

The Neemamo Mishkanan trip stemmed from the partnership between the First Nation and Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, which originally carried out research and programming on lake sturgeon, which are impacted by hydroelectric dams through the region. 

After years, the program grew to include youth participation, and ultimately launch the first Neemamo Mishkanan trip this August.