Through the sharing of artistic expression and the exchange of cultural knowledge, Canoe Stories Festival (CSF), will renew Indigenous space within the Kichi Sipi (Ottawa River) Watershed on Algonquin Territory.
CSF will highlight relationships to Land and Water with Indigenous art, architecture and the engineering of the vessels that move, carry and connect us.
The festival will gather and present Indigenous narratives by integrating the telling of the stories within and alongside traditional water vessels – chii’mon, kayaks, umiks – of various designs and materials.
Our intention for the Festival will be to illuminate the legacy of First Nations travelling the local waterways and traversing our territories as we originally did. This included harmonious management and conservation of resources. CSF will also illuminate the history of protocol and peace along with ongoing trade amongst First Nations, Inuit and Métis right across Turtle Island from Coast to Coast to Coast.
Using this historical legacy for guiding principles, CSF will offer an opportunity to renew our relationship to the Land and Waterways in the present. We invite our non-Indigenous sisters and brothers to join with us.
Above art work by Emily Rose Michaud from Reflections series on water molecules.
