Collaborative Relations

Through National Council Member Robert Comeau, The Canadian Canoe Museum has partnered with the Qajakkut Society, an Iqaluit-based organization, aimed at strengthening the practice of qajaq (kayak) building and paddling. As part of this project, The Canadian Canoe Museum commissioned the Qajakkut Society to build two qajait (kayaks). Traditional knowledge and language sharing have been essential to this project by combining hands-on experiential learning with guidance from Elders in the community.

The evocative eight-person canoe pictograph at Pictured Lake, upon which The Canadian Canoe Museum’s logo is based, is located about half an hour by road and another half an hour by snowshoe from the city centre of Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Today, September 30th is National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day here in Canada. This day honours all the First Nation, Metis, and Inuit children who were taken from their homes and forced to attend residential schools – the survivors and those who sadly never made it back home. It is a … Read more

At The Canadian Canoe Museum (CCM), each watercraft carries a story of how it came into the collection. A Haida dugout canoe, housed at the Museum, has a particularly heartfelt journey.

The canoe being built for The Canadian Canoe Museum begins to take shape. Photo by Todd Labrador. The Canadian Canoe Museum is excited to announce that the talented Labrador family has started building a new, ocean-going Mi’kmaq canoe for the collection. Todd Labrador is a renowned birchbark canoe builder. He is joined in the building … Read more

Voices, languages and perspectives from Indigenous communities will be an integral part of the Canadian Canoe Museum’s new building and exhibitions. Recently we invited Waaseya-Kwe [Bright Light Woman, Turtle Clan] Kim Muskratt, a citizen of Hiawatha First Nation, one of the Williams Treaties nations on whose territories the Museum exists, to explore with us why … Read more

Looking back on the highs and lows of 2021, I am amazed that we continue to dig deep, draw on our strengths and pull together as a community. We had to look hard for opportunities, learn to be grateful for small things and to trust in our own resiliency.

Indigenous Languages Program supported by TD Bank Group 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. Visitors to the new Canadian Canoe Museum (CCM) will see and hear … Read more