The Canadian Canoe Pilgrimage is a project inspired by Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission with the hope of encouraging intercultural and interreligious dialogue and learning. The project will involve a group of more than 30 Indigenous, Jesuit, English and French Canadian paddlers who will embark on an 850-kilometre canoe pilgrimage. Participants will range in age from 18 to 67 years old.
The group will follow a traditional First Nations canoe trade route that was travelled by early European settlers such as Samuel de Champlain and Jean de Brébeuf, who were welcomed and guided by the Indigenous Peoples of this land. CPP project manager Erik Sorensen says they are retracing this historic route on the 150th anniversary of Canada as a nation, but more importantly we are trying to work for reconciliation. Sorensen added as a member of the Jesuits, a group that had a residential school that played an integral role in colonization efforts by early Europeans, there is a collective healing that he’s participating in.
The 25-day pilgrimage will begin at Sainte-Marie among the Hurons in Midland (on the shore of Georgian Bay) on July 21st and will end on the St. Lawrence River at the Kahnawake First Nation (close to Montreal) on August 15th. For more information about the CCP you can visit canoepilgrimage.com.
