New Canadian Canoe Museum to Feature Languages and Voices from Indigenous Communities

Visitors to the new Canadian Canoe Museum (CCM) will see and hear languages and voices from Indigenous communities the moment they step into the museum.

Kokomis Tchiman, a 26-foot long birchbark canoe built by Marcel Labelle, Métis elder and canoe-builder from the Mattawa Ontario region, sits on display in the Canadian Canoe Museum’s collection storage centre. Photo by Fusionriver Photography.

The new home for the CCM, set to break ground this fall and open in 2023, will feature a 17,000 square foot exhibition gallery that will share the history and enduring relevance of the canoe and kayak.

With a significant gift of $500,000 over five years from TD the Museum will work directly with individuals in eight Indigenous communities. The funding also enables the CCM to hire an emerging Indigenous museum professional.

These actions will help ensure that knowledges, perspectives and voices from Indigenous communities are directly represented in the exhibitions and educational programming.

“The CCM has a deep commitment to collaborative relations with the Indigenous communities of origin across Turtle Island (Canada) for the watercraft in the Museum’s collection,” said curator Jeremy Ward.

Building outwards from relations with Curve Lake, Hiawatha, Alderville and Scugog ­– local Michi Saagig First Nations on whose territory the CCM resides ­– the Museum will work with Inuit communities in northern Labrador and Nunavik, Mi’kmaq in the east and the Haida Gwaii Museum in the west.

In each community, the Museum’s team will gather knowledge about canoes and kayaks, their roles in resource harvesting, changes caused by settlement, and the resurgence of Indigenous watercraft-making and use as part of community healing.

“All work supports languages from Indigenous communities, whether by recording vocabulary about canoes in Anishnaabemowin, interviews conducted by fluent Haida speakers with language learners, or translating conversations from Michif or Inuktitut, ensuring Indigenous People can speak their truths in their own language and voice,” said Ward.

The Michi Saagig dialect of Anishnaabemowin will be used throughout the Museum and within its exhibits alongside English and French, and other languages from Indigenous communities will feature in relation to specific watercraft.

Funding for the CCM’s Indigenous Languages Program marks the largest investment made to date by TD Bank Group through TD Ready Commitment program in the Peterborough region.

For more information about the new museum or the CCM’s collaborative relations work with Indigenous communities visit canoemuseum.ca/collaborative-relations.

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