Indigenous Youth & Community Futures Fund Spotlight:
Georgian Bay Anishinaabek Youth
Written in collaboration with Hilary Duff. Hilary is a journalist and communications consultant who works with teams worldwide to share stories of positive change. She's also the author of Planetary Health Case Studies: An Anthology of Solutions, a publication commissioned by Harvard University to illustrate the connections between human health and man-made environmental change. Hilary can be reached at www.hilaryduff.work.
This spotlight was written based on an interview conducted in September 2020. The Indigenous Youth & Community Futures Fund (IYCFF) invests in opportunities for Indigenous youth to connect with their land, languages, and cultures and strengthen and deepen their relationships within and across Indigenous communities. It also supports the transmission of cultural practices and knowledge to future generations.
In October 2019, a group of 250 people gathered on a small beach in the northern Ontario town of Parry Sound. By the glow of a sacred fire, they watched as a birch bark canoe was launched along the shores of Georgian Bay for the first time in several generations.
Oshkinigig is not just any jiimaan. The canoe was constructed with skill, patience, and care by hundreds of youth over the course of 19 days. Many of these young canoe builders came from the five First Nations around Parry Sound, which is Anishinaabek territory.
The birch bark canoe build was overseen by Kyla Judge and the Georgian Bay Anishinaabek Youth (GBAY). GBAY is an Indigenous youth-led group supported by the Georgian Bay Biosphere (GBB) and managed by Kyla in her role as the Indigenous Youth Coordinator. The group supports Indigenous youth aged 13-29 who live along the eastern shores of Georgian Bay.
The story of Oshkinigig and GBAY began long before 2019. Kyla is a community member of Shawanaga First Nation, where she lives with her family. Her family has always been close knit, and she grew up harvesting, hunting, and fishing on the land and waters.
With no high school in Shawanaga, Kyla and Indigenous youth from the surrounding First Nations attended the only high school in Parry Sound. Kyla became a co-leader of the school’s Indigenous student group, known as Oshki Shkode, an initiative started by her Ojibwe language teacher. The group was responsible for planning different cultural activities throughout the year. The annual powwow hosted each May was the highlight.
“It was one way at the time that we were able to celebrate who we are as Anishinaabe people with the rest of our classmates,” Kyla says of the event. “That connects to one of the not-as-nice parts of living in a small town, which is that racism is prevalent. For us as a group, it was always understood that we had to model for other Indigenous students that we have safe spaces and we can be Anishinaabe.”
After graduating in 2014, Kyla enrolled in the Indigenous Studies program at Trent University. While there, she took part in a youth leadership and mentorship program that engaged students in land-based education viewed through a Western science lens.
Anishinaabe ininemowin—Indigenous thought and philosophy—is rooted in being part of the natural world, rather than being separate from it. Generations of reciprocal relationships with the lands and waters is the foundation of Indigenous knowledge. Despite being as valid as Western ways of thinking, Indigenous knowledge is often overlooked and has been systemically erased through residential schools and the ongoing effects of colonization.
Kyla says her degree offered context to her experience growing up on the First Nation. She found herself discussing colonization and systemic racism—narratives that weren’t always openly discussed in her community. Always driven to return home, Kyla was further motivated by a desire to continue these critical conversations in Shawanaga.
Moving back north, Kyla pitched the idea of creating an Indigenous youth collective for those aging out of Oshki Shkode. Those initial conversations began with three other Indigenous youth, and evolved into the creation of Georgian Bay Anishinaabek Youth. The group was looking for ways to support and engage high school students, older Indigenous youth, and elders.
That’s when Kyla heard an elder share a story about the two communal birch bark canoes that historically sat along the riverbank in Parry Sound. “He highlighted the importance of community building and sustainability, and how the birch bark canoe not only symbolized transportation, but it meant survival,” Kyla recalls. “People were able to hunt, fish, connect, and continue relationship-building and living their lives.”
Soon, a birch bark canoe build became the focal point of the GBAY group. That was easier said than done, however. A legacy of residential schools is that much knowledge has been buried, lost, and taken from Indigenous nations. As a result, GBAY turned to knowledge keepers across the Great Lakes, sourcing build details from communities in Ontario, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and beyond.
“What’s really cool about building the wiigwaas jiimaan is how it’s connected to different areas of Anishinaabe knowledge,” says Kyla. Historically, the activities and skill sets of Anishinaabe people would culminate in the building of a birch bark canoe. Crafting its frame is similar to building the snowshoes that were essential for hunting activities, or the birch bark baskets used for harvesting.
Through the canoe build, Indigenous youth were connecting with one another, their culture, and the land, a process Kyla describes as “unbelievably rewarding and so beautiful.”
What’s next for Oshkinigig?
The teachings continue, even now that the birch bark canoe has been built. It’s one part of the ongoing process of reconciliation—celebrating Indigenous knowledge and normalizing Anishinaabe way of life.
Kyla and the GBAY group have also had the chance to present to teachers and students on a number of occasions, sharing how land-based education is as valuable a method of learning as writing an essay or taking a test.
That education continues even as COVID-19 has put many of GBAY’s activities on hold. The jiimaan was kept at the nearby Killbear Provincial Park for the summer, with Kyla and other GBAY members regularly paddling on the waters of Georgian Bay. They inevitably get chatting with provincial park visitors, explaining the build process and the aim of their group—a bit of community engagement in the time of physical distancing.
And in early 2021, the birch bark canoe will be on display in The Museum On Tower Hill in Parry Sound, part of a six-month exhibition about GBAY and its work with Anishinaabe youth. “People still perceive our canoe as an artifact, so there’s a bit of irony in bringing it into a museum,” Kyla laughs. “Our canoe is meant to be paddled!”
With the support of 800+ people involved in the birch bark canoe build, Kyla is hoping it’s one more step towards restoring the knowledge link that was lost through colonization. Says Kyla: “The canoe is not only a literal vessel, it’s a metaphor of a vessel to continue sharing Anishinaabe knowledge. We are a community of canoe caretakers.”
