Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation youth follow ancestral waterways in educational canoe trip

Earlier this month, a group of 42 people set out from Southend, Sask., and travelled by water roughly 212 kilometres over 10 days to their destination in Pelican Narrows. 

Andrea Custer H. Clarke from Pelican Narrows came up with the idea for "Following the Trails of Our Ancestors:" a trip with youth using the very same waterway systems in the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation area in northeast Saskatchewan that were used for hundreds of years before highways were made.

"It's almost like taking their hand and walking them through history, but through like a land-based educational experience," she said. 

Custer H. Clarke took a similar trip in her master's program, between Nipawin and The Pas, Man.

The group met in Otter Bay, and the next day they participated in an all-day safety training at Grandmother's Bay before heading out on the water and travelling the traditional lands of the Rock Cree people. 

Custer H. Clarke said they talked about traditional names for the rivers and waterways they took. 

"It was decolonizing … I was telling the youth, this river, that's not what we know it as," she said. 

"We know it as something else. But [its name] in English, it's a way of claiming territories over our lands."

Participants learned the Churchill River was traditionally called "mahtâwi-sîpiy," which means "the wondrous river." She said the youths learned about the rock paintings they got to see during their trip and what the significance of them were long ago. 

Daily challenges included choppy water and overgrown portages, weather changes and mosquitoes. Custer H. Clarke said the group stayed resilient through it all — even on days where she felt way over her head. 

"After facing such difficult days where I'd be crying and I'd be like 'What am I doing,' they would just laugh and brush it off, and be like, 'Let's do this.' And just revved up to go again," she said.

Randy Clarke, a land-based teacher who went on the trip, said the safety training was important.

"Some of them were really skilled paddlers, and some of them were just beginners," he said.

He said the group learned what to do if they tipped the canoe, how to balance, and other basic things they could do to ensure their safety while on the trip.