The Canadian Canoe Pilgrimage, made up of 30 paddlers focused on reconciliation with Indigenous people are travelling throughout Ontario, stopped in North Bay on Monday. The group kicked things off in Midland, went across the Georgian Bay, then onto the French River and Lake Nipissing and are now on to the Mattawa River. The project hopes to promote dialogue between the Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples of Canada.
Their journey follows a traditional First Nations trading route, and trip spokesperson Erik Sorensen says they aren’t trying to offer a solution to truth and reconciliation. He says they just want to take one small concrete step forward. Sorensen says they have speakers of all different languages along for the ride, and adds spending time together can help reconciliation efforts. The journey will end in Montreal later this month.
