[Music]
as a journalist I’ve been lucky enough
to travel all over the world but when I
started to realize was I didn’t know my
own country very well so I started to
try and take assignments over the last
year in Canada specifically I wanted to
British Columbia but as we know things
usually don’t work out that way and I’ve
spent a lot of time in Manitoba of all
places and last year travel Manitoba
contacted me and asked me if I would
photograph the bird river for them which
is a Chain of Lakes and we were gonna
paddle it in a canoe and Lake chains are
flat water so it’s very calm relaxing
boring if you’re learning how to paddle
it’s great but for adrenaline junkie
like me it doesn’t quite do the trick
but I built a really good relationship
with travel Manitoba and this year in
July travel Manitoba explorer magazine
and Twin River travel we all work
together to take me back to paddle the
manigott Augen river that you can see
here and the manigott Agra River is a
class to Rapid River and classes go one
to six where six is impossible and one
is super super boring so a 2 is a decent
introduction for people that want to
learn about paddling and while we were
on that trip we had we had some good
times and there was some adrenaline
rushes but in the afternoons we had a
lot of free time because the river isn’t
that intense of a river so in the
evenings
Tristan Schneider and Sam Anthony who
are the owners of Twin River travel and
I would spend a lot of time just talking
about different ideas and they mentioned
that they wanted to paddle the blood
vein River in September of this year now
I don’t know how you felt when I just
said the word blood vein River but for
me that is the coolest name of a river I
have ever heard if you can find a cooler
name for a river you need to contact me
because I’m gonna paddle it because
that’s amazing so I’ve raced home and I
started looking into what the blood vein
River was all about and recently on
Canada Day of this year the blood vein
River and the area runs in copa Macau
and aqui just recently became a UNESCO
World Heritage Site on Canada Day so
this was a big deal in itself and it’s
the first ever cultural and natural
world heritage site in Canada so again
pretty awesome and all this came about
because for First Nation bands work
together to campaign over several years
to get this area protected from industry
so that got me really excited but
got me excited was Tristan and Sam
wanted to form a relationship with the
indigenous community of blood vein that
is right on Lake Winnipeg and because of
my PhD research working with indigenous
peoples they thought I could benefit
them in that way helping build that
relationship so we got our team together
which is some of the lovely people seen
here and we started coming up with what
our plan was and our goal was to paddle
from the border of Ontario all the way
to Lake Winnipeg so we’d fly into the
artery lakes it was 225 kilometers and
we gave ourselves 14 days so if any of
you here are paddlers you’re looking at
me like I’m an idiot because 14 days the
paddle 225 kilometers is excessive but
none of you have ever traveled with a
photojournalist our photographer before
I bet because we are super irritating
every two seconds we’re gonna ask you to
stop so we can take a photo here or oh
just angle the boat this way so I can
get this oh go back up there a little
bit oh let me go ahead you guys wait
here and I’ll let you catch up or my
favorite is I’m sitting on a rapid and
they run the rapid and I don’t get the
shot I want and I make them drag all the
gear back up and do it again that’s a
great way to make friends
so 14 days was a good amount of time for
us to get a blood vein but it was also
more importantly enough food for us in
case we ended up taking a little bit
longer because of me now I live in
Victoria but the rest of the team was
already in Winnipeg so I flew from
Victoria to Winnipeg Tristan and the
team picked me up we all stayed at
Tristan’s house the night before packing
up the gear getting all excited I think
we probably slept about two hours a
night before we left we drove four and a
half hours northeast the town of
Bessette really tiny little town and a
seaplane from there that you can see
here took us from Bessette to the artery
Lakes where we put all our gear back
together and the canoes back together
load it up and we launched from there
and you can see in the image there are
some blue barrels there that’s for our
food and the bags the waterproof bags
and everything in case things end up in
the water you don’t want to lose things
so again I don’t know if any of you
actually are paddlers here but when you
paddle it’s not like this image here
where it’s like just non-stop whitewater
it’s actually there’s sections of
whitewater and then there’s some calm
then there’s some more whitewater and
then there’s some calm so what you’ll
normally do is you’ll pull up to the
rapids you’ll get out and you’ll see
what’s called Scout the rapid to see
what line you want to take through it so
there’ll be rocks in the
there could be trees there the water
could dip really quickly you don’t want
to crack your canoe in half because that
makes for a really disappointing trip so
you get out you Scout and you find your
way through it you find that trail
you’re gonna take and it’s also really
important because again being in a canoe
there’s two of you so you need to make
sure that you’re trying to take the same
path you’re both trying to go the same
direction so because if I go right and
my Stern goes left we go straight and we
hit that rock and we fall in the water
which it’s never a good experience but
we were being uber safe at first we were
checking every rapid out ahead of time
making sure that it was what we wanted
to do and how we’re gonna run it but
then we started running big drops like
this successfully and we were feeling
pretty amazing and our confidence
started to grow and what does confidence
turn into quite often arrogant all right
so we started to think we were pretty
awesome and kind of just stopped
scouting anything lower than a class
three and for a little while he went
really well but if there’s one thing
I’ve noticed is that in nature
arrogance doesn’t go really well with it
because nature likes to remind you that
it’s boss
and here the rivers reminding Jocelyn
and Garrett that it’s boss they’re
actually a pretty relative nice way it’s
putting them in the water they’re gonna
have to go for a swim
that’s okay we have dry suits we’ll be
fine right but sometimes nature and I
think really it’s the majority of the
time nature’s not very nice it reminds
you in a very rude way so I’m just gonna
show you a quick video about how rude
so as you can see the escape canoe
almost decapitated Garrett at that
moment he hadn’t got his hands there I
thought you’d be unconscious
the other interesting thing is right now
we see underwater right and it’s
underwater but the cameras on his helmet
which means his head’s underwater so
he’s actually right now I was on the
side running safety for this one and all
you could see where his legs kicking up
like this as the water rushed him down
the river he ended up flipping out and
he was okay it a really big bruise on
his bum but other than that he was he
was pretty golden so just again if
anything from this talk you take away is
arrogant nature they don’t really they
don’t mesh very well alright so again
Manitoba BC big differences I don’t know
how many of you have visited central
Manitoba or north-central Manitoba but
it turns out in late September it is
cold really cold I prepared for cold but
I didn’t expect this kind of cold by day
seven-hour PFDs are which you can see
here which are life jackets basically
they were frozen our Coca tat dry suits
would freeze and balls and if we were
lucky enough to hang them up on trees
they would freeze like this hanging on
the tree our shoes were frozen solid so
we started having to wake up and light a
fire good morning just a soggy route one
day at 5:30 in the morning I woke up and
the only part of my face that’s exposed
in my sleeping bag is right there and it
was like frost on my face and I’m in my
nice tent and I just thought this isn’t
fun yeah we talked about type 2 fun and
you know toughen it out but no I’m too
old for that now like no thanks so I
talked to the rest of the team and I
said hey I’m not having fun could we
maybe push a bit harder and get to the
community a blood vein a bit earlier so
we looked at the maps and what we
figured out was if on day 10 we did a 35
click day we’d be good so we paddled up
until that day and then there on that
day we pushed hard and we lucked out and
we had this awesome tailwind so in eight
hours it was no problem we made at the
35 K there wasn’t a lot of Rapids and we
made it to our last campsite that would
be along the blood vein river so again
this is only day 10 but we have 14 days
worth of food so we feasted that night
with a giant
unstoppable amount of food and junk food
really like so much junk food
in this image you can actually see liam
is making us some Bannock which is an
indigenous bread and it’s normally
deep-fried but what we would do is make
the dough roll it out put it on a stick
roast it in the fire until it had risen
and then we put it in butter and then
put it in a bag of cinnamon sugar and
shake it and then you have a doughnut by
the fire right so nice unhealthy snack
while you’re out camping so we’re all
hopped up on sugar now so we started
telling ghost stories and Sasquatch
stories because Sasquatch is actually a
traditional animal of the ññ ññ ashab a
people which is the community of blood
vein and so we started talking about
that everybody’s telling stories where
they’d maybe heard of a Sasquatch or
seen one and that night we go to bed and
I kind of hear some rustling in the
bushes and I was like hey team I think
there’s a bear out here and nobody
answered so I yelled it again and again
nobody answered and I thought man
they’re always messing with me what are
they we messed with a photographer it’s
like we’re always the run to the litter
I’m like it’s totally team just messing
around with me I’m like okay I’m going
to sleep I’m not dealing with this
so I’m we’re all over went to sleep next
day I wake up and you member how he
talked about those food barrels the big
blue barrels right at the beginning so
when we put our food in there its to
keep it sealed from the water turns out
it doesn’t really keep it sealed from
bears so we came out to camp we couldn’t
find one of our barrels so we started
wandering around and in the forest one
of the blue barrels the lid had been
squeezed and popped off and the barrel
had been torn to shreds so scattered
about us all our food so there’s
tortillas Reese’s Pieces coffee but
nothing that was tired the only thing
the bear actually ate was the giant
bottle of syrup
which had two causes our results from
that and the first result was we
couldn’t have pancakes that morning
which I was very upset about and there
is now a diabetic bear running around
the blood vein River so we made it to
the town of blood vein like I mentioned
that was our objective here
and again what made me excited about
this trip was the fact that it was an
opportunity for me to use some of the
tools I’d learned working with
indigenous peoples across Canada because
they really wanted that relationship
that was very important so we didn’t
camp anywhere in blood vein we didn’t
stay at a lodge but we actually was we
stayed with the physical education
instructor at his home and while we were
there he asked if we’d be willing to do
a presentation on the blood vein River
and our trip to try and get youth
excited about the river so that they
might be interested in doing some
shorter paddling trips while we were
there he also asked me about my research
and I told him that my research is
actually I go into indigenous
communities and help implement Olympic
wrestling programs and then I measured
the impacts on the youth he was like oh
do you want to teach a wrestling
practice sure so we did all these things
it was super fun and it was actually
really successful the kids were really
into it and then that evening Evo an
elder from the community yvonne young
invited us to take place in a
traditional sweat lodge so we first did
a smudging ceremony which you can see
here and then we participated in the
sweat lodge with her there that’s Yvonne
there and her nephew who kind of was the
caretaker were during a ceremony and
while we were there I asked Yvonne what
was the impacts of the UNESCO World
Heritage Site on the community and there
yeah I’d heard a little bit of puzzles
and negatives and Yvonne said oh so by
saying that could happend she said since
then Youth have become so interested in
their culture because they’ve realized
that an international audience is
interested in their culture so why
wouldn’t they be interested in it they
should start looking into it she said
that if kids could have a sweat lodge
every night they would and funny enough
while we were there doing ours three
girls about halfway through of the ages
10 to 12 showed up in acid they could
participate and you’ve almost like I
guess but you could tell that I guess
was a show she was so excited that those
kids were there and that was a really
cool experience to see now
reconciliation is in the title of my
talk but what is reconciliation a lot of
my friends and family will ask me
because they know I work with indigenous
peoples what
Reconciliation mean to me and I have to
tell them I’m not indigenous it doesn’t
matter what reconciliation means to me
reconciliation is about indigenous
people telling us in the Canadian
government what we can do to rectify the
damages that were done to them as a
people and to their culture from
colonialism and residential schools and
when I visit communities I often try to
ask elders what they believe
reconciliation means and I asked Yvonne
and Yvonne told me reconciliation is
about freedom freedom for indigenous
youth to be proud of themselves and
their culture and show that and that was
the first time I’d ever heard that and I
was really interested in it and at the
sweat lodge interestingly enough the
three young girls that came sang songs
with Yvonne so when you’re in a sweat
the elder will sing songs and the kids
actually took part in the song singing
friendly six people they didn’t know so
we were making a film about this trip
and I asked Yvonne if she would allow us
to film her singing some of the songs
after we interviewed her and if she
wanted she was welcome to invite some of
the kids and one of the kids did come so
I just want to show you a quick little
clip just a small part of one of the
songs they sang for us so this is a ten
year old girl who just packed up came to
the house sung this song in front of six
people she’d never met before other than
in the sweat where we were all dying and
she seemed to be fine for some reason
and so she came and she barely spoke to
us before she sang and then she sung the
songs and they sung another song right
after this and then she didn’t speak
again she made me again maybe six words
to us but she was proud enough and you
can tell she’s nervous but she was proud
enough of her culture to share that with
us so to hear Yvonne make this statement
just a few hours sooner about freedom
for our youth and then to actually see
it in action already was an amazing
experience and I’m very proud that I was
a part of and I feel very privileged so
what’s the point of this whole talk and
this adventure in general yes we paddled
this really cool white water and it was
great but there’s more than that I work
with a lot of partners and
answers and they were ecstatic about
this trip and we’ve worked for several
years together and you could see all
their gear throughout the slides I’ve
shown but they were so pumped to be a
part of this trip and not because it’s
this famous River like the blood vein is
a very famous River in Canada and around
the world but because that Twin River
travel was trying to build that
connection with the community of blood
vein and the goal of Twin River travel
now is to take clientele down the blood
vein and then do the same things we did
have them stay in the community of blood
vein at the end for a certain time so
they can understand the lives of
indigenous people a little bit but also
to experience the culture that we were
privileged enough to experience because
we know racism comes from ignorance and
at least to hate and it’s a lack of
understanding so in the reverse then
education can lead to acceptance and
that can make the lives of all Canadians
better thank you
[Applause] [Music]
as a journalist I’ve been lucky enough
to travel all over the world but when I
started to realize was I didn’t know my
own country very well so I started to
try and take assignments over the last
year in Canada specifically I wanted to
British Columbia but as we know things
usually don’t work out that way and I’ve
spent a lot of time in Manitoba of all
places and last year travel Manitoba
contacted me and asked me if I would
photograph the bird river for them which
is a Chain of Lakes and we were gonna
paddle it in a canoe and Lake chains are
flat water so it’s very calm relaxing
boring if you’re learning how to paddle
it’s great but for adrenaline junkie
like me it doesn’t quite do the trick
but I built a really good relationship
with travel Manitoba and this year in
July travel Manitoba explorer magazine
and Twin River travel we all work
together to take me back to paddle the
manigott Augen river that you can see
here and the manigott Agra River is a
class to Rapid River and classes go one
to six where six is impossible and one
is super super boring so a 2 is a decent
introduction for people that want to
learn about paddling and while we were
on that trip we had we had some good
times and there was some adrenaline
rushes but in the afternoons we had a
lot of free time because the river isn’t
that intense of a river so in the
evenings
Tristan Schneider and Sam Anthony who
are the owners of Twin River travel and
I would spend a lot of time just talking
about different ideas and they mentioned
that they wanted to paddle the blood
vein River in September of this year now
I don’t know how you felt when I just
said the word blood vein River but for
me that is the coolest name of a river I
have ever heard if you can find a cooler
name for a river you need to contact me
because I’m gonna paddle it because
that’s amazing so I’ve raced home and I
started looking into what the blood vein
River was all about and recently on
Canada Day of this year the blood vein
River and the area runs in copa Macau
and aqui just recently became a UNESCO
World Heritage Site on Canada Day so
this was a big deal in itself and it’s
the first ever cultural and natural
world heritage site in Canada so again
pretty awesome and all this came about
because for First Nation bands work
together to campaign over several years
to get this area protected from industry
so that got me really excited but
got me excited was Tristan and Sam
wanted to form a relationship with the
indigenous community of blood vein that
is right on Lake Winnipeg and because of
my PhD research working with indigenous
peoples they thought I could benefit
them in that way helping build that
relationship so we got our team together
which is some of the lovely people seen
here and we started coming up with what
our plan was and our goal was to paddle
from the border of Ontario all the way
to Lake Winnipeg so we’d fly into the
artery lakes it was 225 kilometers and
we gave ourselves 14 days so if any of
you here are paddlers you’re looking at
me like I’m an idiot because 14 days the
paddle 225 kilometers is excessive but
none of you have ever traveled with a
photojournalist our photographer before
I bet because we are super irritating
every two seconds we’re gonna ask you to
stop so we can take a photo here or oh
just angle the boat this way so I can
get this oh go back up there a little
bit oh let me go ahead you guys wait
here and I’ll let you catch up or my
favorite is I’m sitting on a rapid and
they run the rapid and I don’t get the
shot I want and I make them drag all the
gear back up and do it again that’s a
great way to make friends
so 14 days was a good amount of time for
us to get a blood vein but it was also
more importantly enough food for us in
case we ended up taking a little bit
longer because of me now I live in
Victoria but the rest of the team was
already in Winnipeg so I flew from
Victoria to Winnipeg Tristan and the
team picked me up we all stayed at
Tristan’s house the night before packing
up the gear getting all excited I think
we probably slept about two hours a
night before we left we drove four and a
half hours northeast the town of
Bessette really tiny little town and a
seaplane from there that you can see
here took us from Bessette to the artery
Lakes where we put all our gear back
together and the canoes back together
load it up and we launched from there
and you can see in the image there are
some blue barrels there that’s for our
food and the bags the waterproof bags
and everything in case things end up in
the water you don’t want to lose things
so again I don’t know if any of you
actually are paddlers here but when you
paddle it’s not like this image here
where it’s like just non-stop whitewater
it’s actually there’s sections of
whitewater and then there’s some calm
then there’s some more whitewater and
then there’s some calm so what you’ll
normally do is you’ll pull up to the
rapids you’ll get out and you’ll see
what’s called Scout the rapid to see
what line you want to take through it so
there’ll be rocks in the
there could be trees there the water
could dip really quickly you don’t want
to crack your canoe in half because that
makes for a really disappointing trip so
you get out you Scout and you find your
way through it you find that trail
you’re gonna take and it’s also really
important because again being in a canoe
there’s two of you so you need to make
sure that you’re trying to take the same
path you’re both trying to go the same
direction so because if I go right and
my Stern goes left we go straight and we
hit that rock and we fall in the water
which it’s never a good experience but
we were being uber safe at first we were
checking every rapid out ahead of time
making sure that it was what we wanted
to do and how we’re gonna run it but
then we started running big drops like
this successfully and we were feeling
pretty amazing and our confidence
started to grow and what does confidence
turn into quite often arrogant all right
so we started to think we were pretty
awesome and kind of just stopped
scouting anything lower than a class
three and for a little while he went
really well but if there’s one thing
I’ve noticed is that in nature
arrogance doesn’t go really well with it
because nature likes to remind you that
it’s boss
and here the rivers reminding Jocelyn
and Garrett that it’s boss they’re
actually a pretty relative nice way it’s
putting them in the water they’re gonna
have to go for a swim
that’s okay we have dry suits we’ll be
fine right but sometimes nature and I
think really it’s the majority of the
time nature’s not very nice it reminds
you in a very rude way so I’m just gonna
show you a quick video about how rude
so as you can see the escape canoe
almost decapitated Garrett at that
moment he hadn’t got his hands there I
thought you’d be unconscious
the other interesting thing is right now
we see underwater right and it’s
underwater but the cameras on his helmet
which means his head’s underwater so
he’s actually right now I was on the
side running safety for this one and all
you could see where his legs kicking up
like this as the water rushed him down
the river he ended up flipping out and
he was okay it a really big bruise on
his bum but other than that he was he
was pretty golden so just again if
anything from this talk you take away is
arrogant nature they don’t really they
don’t mesh very well alright so again
Manitoba BC big differences I don’t know
how many of you have visited central
Manitoba or north-central Manitoba but
it turns out in late September it is
cold really cold I prepared for cold but
I didn’t expect this kind of cold by day
seven-hour PFDs are which you can see
here which are life jackets basically
they were frozen our Coca tat dry suits
would freeze and balls and if we were
lucky enough to hang them up on trees
they would freeze like this hanging on
the tree our shoes were frozen solid so
we started having to wake up and light a
fire good morning just a soggy route one
day at 5:30 in the morning I woke up and
the only part of my face that’s exposed
in my sleeping bag is right there and it
was like frost on my face and I’m in my
nice tent and I just thought this isn’t
fun yeah we talked about type 2 fun and
you know toughen it out but no I’m too
old for that now like no thanks so I
talked to the rest of the team and I
said hey I’m not having fun could we
maybe push a bit harder and get to the
community a blood vein a bit earlier so
we looked at the maps and what we
figured out was if on day 10 we did a 35
click day we’d be good so we paddled up
until that day and then there on that
day we pushed hard and we lucked out and
we had this awesome tailwind so in eight
hours it was no problem we made at the
35 K there wasn’t a lot of Rapids and we
made it to our last campsite that would
be along the blood vein river so again
this is only day 10 but we have 14 days
worth of food so we feasted that night
with a giant
unstoppable amount of food and junk food
really like so much junk food
in this image you can actually see liam
is making us some Bannock which is an
indigenous bread and it’s normally
deep-fried but what we would do is make
the dough roll it out put it on a stick
roast it in the fire until it had risen
and then we put it in butter and then
put it in a bag of cinnamon sugar and
shake it and then you have a doughnut by
the fire right so nice unhealthy snack
while you’re out camping so we’re all
hopped up on sugar now so we started
telling ghost stories and Sasquatch
stories because Sasquatch is actually a
traditional animal of the ññ ññ ashab a
people which is the community of blood
vein and so we started talking about
that everybody’s telling stories where
they’d maybe heard of a Sasquatch or
seen one and that night we go to bed and
I kind of hear some rustling in the
bushes and I was like hey team I think
there’s a bear out here and nobody
answered so I yelled it again and again
nobody answered and I thought man
they’re always messing with me what are
they we messed with a photographer it’s
like we’re always the run to the litter
I’m like it’s totally team just messing
around with me I’m like okay I’m going
to sleep I’m not dealing with this
so I’m we’re all over went to sleep next
day I wake up and you member how he
talked about those food barrels the big
blue barrels right at the beginning so
when we put our food in there its to
keep it sealed from the water turns out
it doesn’t really keep it sealed from
bears so we came out to camp we couldn’t
find one of our barrels so we started
wandering around and in the forest one
of the blue barrels the lid had been
squeezed and popped off and the barrel
had been torn to shreds so scattered
about us all our food so there’s
tortillas Reese’s Pieces coffee but
nothing that was tired the only thing
the bear actually ate was the giant
bottle of syrup
which had two causes our results from
that and the first result was we
couldn’t have pancakes that morning
which I was very upset about and there
is now a diabetic bear running around
the blood vein River so we made it to
the town of blood vein like I mentioned
that was our objective here
and again what made me excited about
this trip was the fact that it was an
opportunity for me to use some of the
tools I’d learned working with
indigenous peoples across Canada because
they really wanted that relationship
that was very important so we didn’t
camp anywhere in blood vein we didn’t
stay at a lodge but we actually was we
stayed with the physical education
instructor at his home and while we were
there he asked if we’d be willing to do
a presentation on the blood vein River
and our trip to try and get youth
excited about the river so that they
might be interested in doing some
shorter paddling trips while we were
there he also asked me about my research
and I told him that my research is
actually I go into indigenous
communities and help implement Olympic
wrestling programs and then I measured
the impacts on the youth he was like oh
do you want to teach a wrestling
practice sure so we did all these things
it was super fun and it was actually
really successful the kids were really
into it and then that evening Evo an
elder from the community yvonne young
invited us to take place in a
traditional sweat lodge so we first did
a smudging ceremony which you can see
here and then we participated in the
sweat lodge with her there that’s Yvonne
there and her nephew who kind of was the
caretaker were during a ceremony and
while we were there I asked Yvonne what
was the impacts of the UNESCO World
Heritage Site on the community and there
yeah I’d heard a little bit of puzzles
and negatives and Yvonne said oh so by
saying that could happend she said since
then Youth have become so interested in
their culture because they’ve realized
that an international audience is
interested in their culture so why
wouldn’t they be interested in it they
should start looking into it she said
that if kids could have a sweat lodge
every night they would and funny enough
while we were there doing ours three
girls about halfway through of the ages
10 to 12 showed up in acid they could
participate and you’ve almost like I
guess but you could tell that I guess
was a show she was so excited that those
kids were there and that was a really
cool experience to see now
reconciliation is in the title of my
talk but what is reconciliation a lot of
my friends and family will ask me
because they know I work with indigenous
peoples what
Reconciliation mean to me and I have to
tell them I’m not indigenous it doesn’t
matter what reconciliation means to me
reconciliation is about indigenous
people telling us in the Canadian
government what we can do to rectify the
damages that were done to them as a
people and to their culture from
colonialism and residential schools and
when I visit communities I often try to
ask elders what they believe
reconciliation means and I asked Yvonne
and Yvonne told me reconciliation is
about freedom freedom for indigenous
youth to be proud of themselves and
their culture and show that and that was
the first time I’d ever heard that and I
was really interested in it and at the
sweat lodge interestingly enough the
three young girls that came sang songs
with Yvonne so when you’re in a sweat
the elder will sing songs and the kids
actually took part in the song singing
friendly six people they didn’t know so
we were making a film about this trip
and I asked Yvonne if she would allow us
to film her singing some of the songs
after we interviewed her and if she
wanted she was welcome to invite some of
the kids and one of the kids did come so
I just want to show you a quick little
clip just a small part of one of the
songs they sang for us so this is a ten
year old girl who just packed up came to
the house sung this song in front of six
people she’d never met before other than
in the sweat where we were all dying and
she seemed to be fine for some reason
and so she came and she barely spoke to
us before she sang and then she sung the
songs and they sung another song right
after this and then she didn’t speak
again she made me again maybe six words
to us but she was proud enough and you
can tell she’s nervous but she was proud
enough of her culture to share that with
us so to hear Yvonne make this statement
just a few hours sooner about freedom
for our youth and then to actually see
it in action already was an amazing
experience and I’m very proud that I was
a part of and I feel very privileged so
what’s the point of this whole talk and
this adventure in general yes we paddled
this really cool white water and it was
great but there’s more than that I work
with a lot of partners and
answers and they were ecstatic about
this trip and we’ve worked for several
years together and you could see all
their gear throughout the slides I’ve
shown but they were so pumped to be a
part of this trip and not because it’s
this famous River like the blood vein is
a very famous River in Canada and around
the world but because that Twin River
travel was trying to build that
connection with the community of blood
vein and the goal of Twin River travel
now is to take clientele down the blood
vein and then do the same things we did
have them stay in the community of blood
vein at the end for a certain time so
they can understand the lives of
indigenous people a little bit but also
to experience the culture that we were
privileged enough to experience because
we know racism comes from ignorance and
at least to hate and it’s a lack of
understanding so in the reverse then
education can lead to acceptance and
that can make the lives of all Canadians
better thank you
[Applause] [Music]
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