Meaghan Tabobondung from Wasauksing First Nation recently participated in a language camp, which brought youth together for an introductory Anishinaabe lesson. "A lot of us are in the same boat where we're trying to reconnect to culture," she says.
The Georgian Bay Anishinaabek Youth (GBAY) program in Parry Sound, Ont., is entirely led by Indigenous youth. They are dedicated to bringing land-based and cultural learning activities to other young people in their First Nations communities along the rivers and eastern shore of Mnidoo Gamii, one of the Anishinaabemowin names for Georgian Bay.
The youth program is part of the broader Georgian Bay Biosphere, a charitable organization established in 1998 that focuses on sustainability for 347,000 hectares of shoreline ecosystem in Ontario.
“It has been one of the most profound gifts of my career to have Indigenous youth share their passion for revitalizing their culture,” Becky Pollock, executive director of the Georgian Bay Biosphere, said. The organization also undertakes projects like species-at-risk research and biodiversity conservation.
The youth first approached the Biosphere in 2017, looking to create safe spaces and opportunities for Indigenous young people. Since then, the organization has provided guidance on things like project management and partnership development, while supporting the youth to set their own vision and priorities. Most participants are between 12 and 29, but sometimes as young as eight or nine.
The Georgian Bay (Mnidoo Gamii) Biosphere office in Parry Sound, Ont. features language and cultural resources for Anishinaabe youth, who in turn get their peers involved in activities that reinforce their connections to their land, history and nations.
Their first project was building Oshkinigig, a wiigwaas jiimaan (birchbark canoe), in October 2019. After all of the materials were gathered in the bush and prepared, building the wiigwaas jiimaan was done over 19 days that brought more than 850 participants together.
Construction of the the wiigwaas jiimaan (birchbark canoe) took nearly three weeks, not counting the time spent gathering materials, and brought hundreds of community members together. Photos: Supplied by Georgian Bay Anishinaabek Youth
Since then, the young leaders have run events like drum-making workshops and a hide-tanning camp in Killbear Provincial Park and taken Oshkinigig out for annual trips on the water. The name of the canoe loosely translates to “The New Ones,” and its fifth-anniversary feast last year celebrated both the boat and that the youth-led group continues to flourish.
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Georgian Bay Anishinaabek Youth members also visit local schools weekly, holding Anishinaabemowin language and culture classes for students not much younger than they are. The Narwhal spoke to three of the youth leaders from Wasauksing First Nation on the easy side of the bay about their favourite recent projects and what this work means to them.
These interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.
Bennett Walker loves the hide-tanning camps, which bring together kids as young as eight to learn how to prepare a hide together. Photo: Supplied by Georgian Bay Anishinaabek Youth
Bennett Walker, 19
“My favorite part of the job so far has been the hide-tanning camp that we did just this past November and December. We got to invite the youth from the school in my home community out for the last day of our hide-tanning camp, and it was a lot younger of a group than most of the people were expecting. I think they were Grade 3 through 5. But the Great Lakes Culture Camps — the ones that were there helping us run the camp and teaching us how to do the traditional steps of hide-tanning — didn’t seem fazed by it at all. They had them in there, working on anything that they could possibly work on and they would teach them how to do everything safely.
A rabbit pelt and hide-tanning tools are found in the Georgian Bay (Mnidoo Gamii) Biosphere office, along with a beaded medallion and woven birchbark baskets — all items that Anishinaabek youth have used or made during workshops.
That’s how it would have been [long ago], the culture and the communities and the togetherness of everyone, and even the youngest of the youth being able to participate in something like hide tanning … being able to walk in there and not be scared of seeing a deer hide or a deer leg. It was just really amazing to think about.
There’s specific tools that we make with the bones of the animals that are meant for children to scrape hides with. They’re meant to be comfortable because they’re made from small deer bones, and they can fit in a small, tiny, little hand. It’s not sharp, but it works.”
For Dawson Bloor, working on a wiigwaas jiimaan (birchbark canoe) was a transformative experience, leading him to pursue youth work.
Dawson Bloor, 23
“I had literally just started [with Georgian Bay Anishinabek Youth] in September [2019] and then it was like a total shift of my work … from being in an office setting to [building the canoe] in a cool garage in October. I really just took everything in as much as I could. I asked a ton of questions about how the process was done. It was a really important experience in my life … that’s kind of when I realized I wanted to do Indigenous youth work.
And then also realizing it’s kind of sad I never got to learn that, because all these traditions and stuff aren’t practised in my community. I don’t want to get into it too much, but through the legacy of colonization and everything, those practices have shifted.
“There’s nobody in our community that builds birchbark canoes, so [I was] dealing with those emotions about being upset that I never got to learn it, while also being super happy that I finally am.”
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There’s nobody in our community that builds birchbark canoes, so [I was] dealing with those emotions about being upset that I never got to learn it, while also being super happy that I finally am.
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In 2021, we paddled [Oshkinigig] around Wasauksing with a big youth canoe trip with everybody. That was a four-day trip and a really cool experience. We also take her out to community events, if there’s a celebration … we took it to a Grade 8 graduation on Wasauksing, which is my home territory.
We’ll bring her to powwows and talk about it with people. [Now] we’ll go out, like, once a summer and just paddle on one of the Killbear [Provincial Park] beaches. I want to take her fishing. I still haven’t done that yet, but I want to catch a fish out of it.”
Meaghan Tabobondung participated in a language camp at the end of January, which incorporated painting as a tool for prompting conversation and learning in Anishinaabemowin
Meaghan Tabobondung, 25
“Our main focus is to get youth involved … There are a lot of us that are in the same boat where we’re trying to reconnect to culture. So it’s fun and interesting to be able to do it with other people. And it helps — having that sense of community while you’re learning, to put it in this perspective of how important it is what we’re doing.
Along with the hide tanning … we also just had our language camp at the end of January as well. It really evolved from what it was [supposed to be] initially to what it actually ended up being. They were hoping for a full immersion camp, but … we weren’t able to get enough language speakers to have a full immersion so we did more of an introductory kind of thing for participants, which was probably a little nicer, because it wasn’t as intimidating.
Meaghan holds a birchbark basket of her own creation, which youth have learned to make during the Georgian Bay Anishinaabek Youth workshops. Traditionally, these baskets were used to pick and store berries.
“We had a series of workshops with language learning and we did painting, and we would ask questions in the language and have people respond to what they’re painting, and it allowed them to be a little more comfortable, and ask questions about like, ‘How do you say this word in Anishinaabemowin?’ ”
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We had a series of workshops with language learning and we did painting, and we would ask questions in the language and have people respond to what they’re painting, and it allowed them to be a little more comfortable, and ask questions about like, ‘How do you say this word in Anishinaabemowin?’
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I want to keep providing more opportunities for people … so it’s something that is just in their lives. That’s not something that’s like this amazing thing happening, it’s just day-to-day and they have these experiences where it becomes a norm for them. … I have a brother who’s about the age of a lot of the kids that we work with, and I think that helps being able to see him experience these things.”
Another year of keeping a close watch
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And in 2024, our stories were raised in legislatures across the country and cited by citizens in their petitions and letters to politicians.
In Alberta, our reporting revealed Premier Danielle Smith made false statements about the controversial renewables pause. In Manitoba, we proved that officials failed to formally inspect a leaky pipeline for years. And our investigations on a leaked recording of TC Energy executives were called “the most important Canadian political story of the year.”
Here at The Narwhal, we don’t use profit, awards or pageviews to measure success. The thing that matters most is real-world impact — evidence that our reporting influenced citizens to hold power to account and pushed policymakers to do better.
And in 2024, our stories were raised in legislatures across the country and cited by citizens in their petitions and letters to politicians.
In Alberta, our reporting revealed Premier Danielle Smith made false statements about the controversial renewables pause. In Manitoba, we proved that officials failed to formally inspect a leaky pipeline for years. And our investigations on a leaked recording of TC Energy executives were called “the most important Canadian political story of the year.”
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