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DON'T MISS THIS SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY

Visit the Canadian Canoe Museum prior to October 2, 2017, to experience the Jiimaan Project.

The Jiimaan Project gives you the opportunity to experience the construction of a Gitigan Ziibi-style birch bark canoe and to learn about Indigenous canoe-making traditions while visiting the Canadian Canoe Museum, an engaging, family-friendly place that explores Canadian history told through the canoe.  

Chuck Commanda, grandson of the late Algonquin elders and honoured canoe builders William and Mary Commanda, is one of the few practicing First Nations birch bark canoe makers. He will be demonstrating traditions and techniques of traditional canoe building, which are a celebration of a complex and ancient relationship with familiar landscapes and waterways. 

The Canadian Canoe Museum is located at 910 Monaghan Road, Peterborough. 

CELEBRATING THE CANADIAN CANOE CULTURE IN ONTARIO

The Canoe is a film documenting five different stories of Ontarians who have connected to the natural environment, each other, and themselves through paddling. The segment from the film below features Gail Bannon, who is teaching Indigenous youth at Fort William First Nation how to build a birch bark canoe. Read their story of how they experience the deeper meaning of learning a traditional craft. 

About Trish Manning

Trish Manning is an adventure travel writer and the content coordinator for Ontario Outdoor Adventures. She is an avid outdoor person who loves to hike, paddle, SUP, snowshoe, cross-country ski and explore Ontario's great outdoors with her golden retriever, Daisy.

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