June 21 was Aboriginal Day across Canada and locally, Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation combined with EarlyON to join in the celebrations at Oso Beach in Sharbot Lake.

Shabot Obaadjiwan Chief Doreen Davis was visibly enjoying the proceedings, which she confirmed when asked if she was enjoying herself.

“I am,” she said. “This is a joint venture, a collaboration between aboriginal groups and EarlyON.

“We’re bringing knowledge, customs and teachings and they’re bringing funding and education.

“It’s a huge blending of resources and it’s about the little ones.

“Five of my 10 grandchildren are here.”

Aboriginal Day is about sharing culture and building bridges toward reconciliation.

Davis said they’re starting to do just that and she’s looking forward to more joint ventures in the future.

“We want to continue our relationship with the snowshoe program,” she said. “And we’d like to get kids involved in making birch bark canoes.

“We also have an outdoor facility at the cultural centre near the White Lake Fish Hatchery that we’d like to make available in the summer so kids can have activities outdoors instead of having to be inside buildings. We’re looking at two dates in July and two dates in August.”

Rural Frontenac Community Services executive director Louise Moody said they too have found the relationship with Shabot Obaadjiwan mutually beneficial.

“Rural Frontenac Community Services is fully supportive of the partnership between Shabot Obaadjiwan and EarlyOn,” she said. “Aboriginal Day continues to become an important event on June 21 and we appreciate the leadership of Chief Doreen and Marcie (Asselstine) from our staff.”

The day featured a variety of drumming events, crafting/beading, interactive children’s stories with puppets and the Algonquin Strawberry Teaching Ceremony shared by Kokum Makwa.

Harold Perry, who died last week, was born at Ardoch. He left for Toronto as a teenager but returned to Ardoch as an adult, and lived the rest of his life on Canoe Path Lane, on a section of the Mississippi River that is called Mud Lake.

He experienced discrimination because of his Algonquin heritage when he was young, in Ardoch and in Toronto.

Nonetheless, he embraced the teachings and connection to the land that he learned as a child. He also developed a very strong and unwavering set of political understandings that have influenced indigenous activists locally and across the province in profound ways. He also was a master canoe builder and country music guitarist. He was proudly inducted into the Land O’Lakes Traditional Music Hall of Fame in 2016.

Harold also helped to manage a patch of wild rice, that was transported to Mud Lake by his mother from Rice Lake near Peterborough. And that patch of rice was responsible for a chain of events that changed Harold’s life and many others, and helped spark the re-birth of Indigenous culture in Frontenac and Lanark Counties and beyond.

In the late 1970’s, the province of Ontario granted a license to a rice harvesting company to collect the rice from Mud Lake. Harold was a well-established builder, woodworker, martial arts instructor, and musician at the time, headed towards retirement age, when he saw that the rice patch that he had been stewarding for most of his life was about to be harvested.

He approached North Frontenac Community Services, which had a community legal worker on staff at the time (a position that eventually led to the formation of its own agency – Rural Legal Services.)

That worker was Bob Lovelace, who spent most of his time representing clients of the Oso Township welfare office, who were having trouble accessing funds from the township.

When Harold and Bob met, both of their lives changed.

“I knew from when I was a kid that I was part Indian,” Lovelace said when contacted this week at his home on Canoe Lake.

“I was mainly focussed, at that that time, on the local welfare system. Harold came to see me one day about what he could do about the rice.

Harold and Bob and a host of other community members worked on what were dubbed locally as the ‘rice wars’ for a couple of seasons and eventually the company was forced to withdraw.

The entire episode sparked a bit of a renaissance in Aboriginal culture in the region.

“Local people kept their culture to themselves before that. They kept it within their extended families, but at that time they started to feel they no longer wanted to be ashamed of their identity, they wanted to come together in public.”

A number of cultural and political groups developed throughout the 1980’s in the Ardoch and Sharbot Lake areas, and Harold and Bob formed a friendship and political alliance.

Lovelace, who is a university lecturer at Queen’s, a community educator and political activist, said “I like to tell my students that Harold Perry taught me everything I know about aboriginal culture and politics.”

In the 1980’s, Harold became a central figure in another legal battle, over hunting rights for non-status people of Aboriginal heritage.

“He thought it was important to establish hunting rights, and he said he thought it would take longer than his lifetime to do it, but we had to make a start. It was a shorter fight than he thought.”

It turned out that it was Harold himself who supplied the test case, when he was arrested for shooting a duck without first obtaining a hunting license.

Harold fought the case on his inherent right to hunt as an aboriginal person, and won. The case was later overturned in an appeal court, based on some of the comments that the judge made during the trial, but the government of Ontario has never re-visited the issue, being content to establish harvesting agreements with First Nations to this day rather than challenging Aboriginal hunting rights.

In the late 1980’s the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation and Allies (AAFNA - later renamed the Ardoch Algonquin First Nation) had been formed, and Harold was elected as Chief through a vote of the family heads council.

AAFNA was approached by Kirby Whiteduck from Golden Lake (now know as Pikwakanagan First Nation) to join in the Algonquin land claim process, and they agreed to participate.

“After about a year Harold realised that the non-status communities were only going to be used and he encouraged the family heads council to have AAFNA step back from the process, and they agreed.”

AAFNA, and Harold, became harsh critics of the land claim process, never yielding in his opinion that it would lead only to the diminution of Aboriginal rights. This led to more than a little bitterness within the local community that is still echoed to this day.

The Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nation, based now on White Lake, and the Snimikobi Algonquin First Nation (based in Eganville) remained within the process, and AAFNA has remained opposed.

In 2007, a uranium exploration company began doing testing on Crotch Lake, using an old mine at Robertsville as an access point from Hwy. 509. Crotch Lake and the region surrounding it are the traditional territory for both AAFNA and the Shabot Obaadjiwan First Nations.

In spite of the schism between the two groups, who share territory and family connections, the two First Nations worked together and occupied the site, saying they would not permit drilling on their ancestral territory. It was an uneasy alliance that frayed pretty quickly, but the occupation held for several months.

“Harold, Doreen Davis (Chief of the Shabot Obaadjiwan) the Badour and St. Pierre families deserve credit for putting that coalition together,” said Lovelace, “even if it was tough.”

After the occupation ended, a court case, launched by the exploration company, culminated in a Superior Court Judge in Kingston demanding that the community representatives who ended up facing charges of trespassing, commit to staying away from the site.

In the end there were three who resisted making that declaration, which was a matter of principle more than practicality since by that time the site was back in the hands of the company and access was blocked.

The three were Harold Perry, Bob Lovelace, and Paula Sherman, all Chiefs or former Chiefs of AAFNA.

“Harold was 78 at the time, and I knew from working in the prisons that he was not in good enough health to go to prison, so we talked him into making the declaration,” Lovelace recalls. Lovelace was the only one who ended up in jail, until he was released on appeal several months later.

The company ended up leaving and the land is no longer eligible for staking, and is part of the lands earmarked in the land claim, for transfer to the Algonquins.

Harold Perry lived on at his home in Ardoch with his wife Elsie until last week.

He was an unassuming, even a shy man, but a ferocious political fighter for the rights of non-status Indigenous people, and whether they agreed or disagreed with him, no one can deny the impact he has had on Indigenous politics in this region, and beyond.

Frybread has been around “ever since we’ve been around,” says ‘Frybread Queen’ Carol Anne Maracle.
And this year, the Queen brought her court to the 22nd Annual Silver Lake Powwow for the first time.
“My grandmother had her recipe, my mother had her recipe and I’ve taken parts of both to make my recipe, to get it the way I wanted,” she said.
For those unfamiliar with the cuisine, frybread is just what it sounds like — a type of bread that’s fried instead of baked.

It’s deceptively simple, essentially a type of dough that is fried in oil. But getting it just right is a matter of much trial and error, she said.
“I use flour, baking powder and water,” she said. “And then fry it in ½ inch of canola oil.”
The result is something quite unique and somewhat difficult to describe.
Essentially, it’s a bun, the size of a very large hamburger bun, but it really isn’t a hamburger bun. It’s fried on the outside, but soft on the inside and kind of like an English muffin, but it isn’t really that much like an English muffin either.

And then then there’s a flavour to it  . . . again, it’s kind of unique.
You can eat it with just butter (recommended) or with jam, and/or peanut butter, or whatever your favourite spread is.
Or, it does make for a unique sandwich.

“When we started, we made just the bread,” Maracle said. “But then people started asking for butter, and jam.
“And then they started asking for fried baloney and pea-meal bacon, other meats. So we started offering that also.”
Whatever it is, it works. Maracle, who’s from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory,  has been in the catering business for 30 years but in the last 10, she’s found a niche travelling around to powwows all over — Toronto, Ottawa, New York State.

“This is our first time here but we’re booked every weekend from June through September,” she said.
When asked if there was a secret ingredient she neglected to mention that makes it taste so good, Maracle did come clean.
“It’s the love I put in it,” she said.

Addington Highlands Council is considering a “partnership” with the Highland Waters Metis Community Council for things such as grant applications, following a presentation by Highland Waters representative Candace Lloyd at the regular Addington Highlands Council meeting Monday in Flinton.

Lloyd gave an overview of her Council and the Highland Waters in general, which represents about 500 registered members and about another 200 Metis under the age of 14 in a geographical area beginning at Paudash in the northwest, Smith Falls in the northeast, the intersection of Highways 15 and 401 in the southeast and Wellers Bay in the southwest.

“We partnered with the school board and you’re our closest municipal government,” said Lloyd (the Highland Waters Council offices are in North Point Square in Northbrook). “We are proposing a partnership with Addington Highlands for grants requiring an aboriginal component.

“We’d like a letter of intent or memorandum of understanding to share information.”

“We haven’t had much luck applying for grants either,” said Coun. Kirby Thompson.

Coun. Bill Cox pointed out that Highland Waters does provide several services in the community such as paying for a support worker at Pine Meadows Nursing Home.

Council agreed to look into the proposal and did agree to waive the $250 hall rental fee for Highland Waters’ annual general meeting June 17 at Flinton Township Hall (1-4 p.m.). The public is invited to the meeting.

Staying put on insepctions
Responding to a letter requesting the Township to conduct septic inspections, Council accepted deputy clerk/planning secretary Patricia Gray’s report recommending continuation of the 2010 agreement with the KFLA Health Unit to conduct septic inspections.

“I spoke with the chief building official from the Health Unit (and) he said that if Council is considering withdrawing from the program, the Health Unit would like the opportunity to discuss it with Council,” Gray said in her report. “If the service that is being provided needs improvement, they would like the opportunity to work on this.”

She said the Health Unit is willing to arrange inspections (when possible) at the same time as building inspections so that contractors do not have to make multiple trips to the site.

“I don’t see them getting out of septic inspections in the short term,” said Coun. Bill Cox.

Mayor Henry Hogg noted that there could be policy changes at the Health Unit when Medical Officer of Health, Ian Gemmill retires at the end of June. Gemmill will be replaced by current associate medical officer of health, Kieran Moore.

Fee waived
Responding to a request to waive zoning bylaw amendment fees, Council approved a waiver of the application fee, but not the costs involved in a zoning bylaw amendment.

“Costs are costs but we can waive the application fee,” said Mayor Henry Hogg.

Freeburn returning to lead hand role
Council has accepted the resignation of Road and Waste Management Supervisor Mark Freeburn.

Freeburn, who replaced long-time supervisor Royce Rosenblath when he retired in February, will be returning to his former position as Lead Hand.

The Township is accepting applications for the Supervisor position until June 16 at 4 p.m.

The High Land Waters Metis Community Council is settling in to their new home at North Point Square near Northbrook. They held their grand opening on May 10 and have office hours on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8am to 2pm and by appointment.

As one of their first projects in the new location, they have started a community vegetable Garden. On Saturday May 27th at North Point Square the Metis council and a few volunteers came out and planted the garden. Not only did they work hard all day in the sun, but Addington Highlands Township Councillor, Bill Cox stopped by and payed them a visit in support of their efforts. He stopped for a photo op with Chair Marlon Lloyd, Senator Robert Lloyd and Youth Representative Ashley Lloyd-Gomez.

The Metis Council is still looking for volunteers to help take care of the new garden.

Tonight (March 30) is the first of an eight-week course in Aboriginal Studies to be offered at Sydenham High. “I wanted my contribution to the 150 celebration to go to my neighbours and fellow citizens,” says Bob Lovelace of South Frontenac, who will be offering a condensed version of the Aboriginal Studies Course he teaches at Queen’s. Open to all, there are no fees, no tests, assignments or grades, but there will be lots of interesting stories and time for great discussions.

The course will address the question of why we might study Aboriginal people and issues, and through a combination of history and current affairs, will help clarify some of the questions many of us may have about terms like reconciliation and de-colonization. What is our place in all this? What might we do as individuals, as Canadians?

The course will be held Thursday evenings in the ‘log cabin’ across the road from the front door of the High School, from 6:30-8:30. You may sign up at the door, or contact Kelly Maracle at 613-449-3832 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Sponsored by: Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, Limestone District School Board and Métis Nation of Ontario.

 If you’re an aboriginal youth aged 15-30 and interested in working in the construction business, St. Lawrence College Employment Centre in Sharbot Lake has just the program for you.

The Centre is beginning an eight-week course which will be offered at the Shabot Obaadjiwan Centre near Arden. Following the course, which is scheduled to run until after Easter, there will be a 12-week work placement will will hopefully lead to permanent employment.

Program coordinator Erin Godfrey said that in order to do the course, participants have to declare indigenous ancestry; no band card is required.

Local contractor Kevin Rioux of K. R. Contracting will be teaching the course which will consist of various skills and knowledge young builders will need, she said.

“There will be plenty of hands-on learning, including a building project,” Godfrey said. “But they will also learn many of the certificate skills they’ll need like CPR, First Aid, Working from heights, scaffold safety, occupational health and safety and personal protective equipment.

“We will also provide things like work boots and belts and some other equipment they’ll need.”

There will also be instruction in things like resume writing, applications and cover letters, she said.

Another aspect of the program is that they’re also looking for some contractors who would be willing to take on the students for a 12-week practical experience part, she said.

“If there are employers out there who could take on some of these students after the classroom and practical aspect, I’d love to hear from them,” she said.

She said they have room for 12 participants and interested people can either come into the Centre in Sharbot Lake in person or call Godfrey at 613-545-3949, ext: 1688.

“We’re hoping we can get people some real world experience that leads to a permanent job,” she said

With her drum-making, songs, language projects and various other pursuits, Danka Brewer has been on a quest of sorts to preserve and pass on as much First Nations culture and lore as she can.

One thing she’s been trying to learn has been the traditional practice of quilling — taking porcupine quills and adding them to birch bark and/or other materials to form designs such as flowers, animals, birds, etc.

She hadn’t been having much success in finding someone with the traditional knowledge to teach her because there simply aren’t that many people around who know how it’s done.

“It’s a dying art,” Brewer says. “At one time, porcupines were a part of the Anishinabe diet and true to their culture, every part of the animal was treated as an available resource and was used for something.

“But it’s not much of a food source any more.”

As well, there’s a lot of preparation time involved in the art — harvesting, dyeing and such — and the actual crafting part is quite intricate and time-consuming. So, not a lot of people have the time or inclination to pursue it.

However, there is a lady, one Kim Muskrat of the Hiawatha First Nation near Rice Lake, who had been taught by an elder in Curve Lake. Muskrat has considerable history with the art as her great grandmother Pauly Soper and her sister, Margaret Anderson, were skilled in quilling. In fact, such was their skill that in 1860, a basket and briefcase made by them was presented to Prince Edward, who later became King Edward VII, and to this day the pieces are part of the Royal Collection.

Muskrat holds occasional workshops but Brewer’s schedule had never meshed with Muskrat’s until last weekend.

So, Brewer along with compatriot Tanya Strickland headed off to make the 166 kilometre (each way) trip to the Hiawatha Band Office for lessons.

They came home enamoured with their new skills and traditions.

“This will make my rotation,” said Strickland. “It’s the first craft in 10 years with Mother (Brewer) I’ve been able to do.

“I enjoyed it with ease.”

On this day, Brewer and Strickland made birch bark medicine boxes, punching small holes into the bark and inserting the quills to form images. There’s no gluing or anything like that involved, the quills make their own attachments and are folded over on the inside with tweezers. A second layer of birch bark is added on the inside to hide the quills.

It’s painstaking work, but something Brewer has always wanted to do.

“It’s the traditional knowledge,” Brewer said. “I already know how to make birch bark baskets and this (decorating them with quill work) is the next evolution.

“I can now pass this knowledge down.”

Brewer teaches a lot of classes, both in connection with school boards and other organizations and she plans on incorporating quill work in these.

But she also does traditional crafts just for the sheer love of it.

Although quill art can fetch prices of $50-500 depending on the piece (jewelry, wall hangings, feather boxes, etc), the amount of quills and the time it took to put together (antique pieces have been valued at $1,500)

But that’s not why Brewer does it.

“You never get back the time spent harvesting, dyeing and work,” she said. “I do crafts because I enjoy it and to pass it on to next generations.

“To keep the knowledge and traditions alive so we don’t lose them.”

It’s a huge project, but Candace Lloyd, secretary/treasurer of the High Land Metis Council is optimistic that a project to map and preserve Traditional Knowledge and Land Use as it pertains to the Metis way of life is doable and worthwhile.

“The Metis way of life represents all aspects of ‘being Metis,’ including a tightly woven relationship with the environment for food, spiritual and cultural fulfillment, medicine and ceremony,” says a pamphlet put out by the Metis Nation of Ontario.

The idea is to interview members of the Metis community on all aspects of traditional knowledge and land use and then preserve that knowledge with map overlays and videos, for use by future generations.

The High Land Council is responsible for an area that stretches from Cardiff in the northwest, down to Trenton and Prince Edward County, over to Kingston (including Frontenac Islands) and up to Smiths Falls in the northeast.

Last Saturday, Lloyd, along with her Council, grant proposal writer Darlene Loft, interviewer/videographer Ashley Lloyd and Traditional Knowledge coordinator Markus Tuolimaa and GIS specialist Steve Gautreau held a workshop in Flinton to collect information and get the word out.

Lloyd said there are many benefits to such a project. Not only will knowledge be preserved, it will also serve as reference material and educational material.

“We will be able to say ‘you’re not going to find ginseng there’ and suggest that a potential wind or solar project be moved slightly because it’s on a moose trail or blueberry patch,” Lloyd said.
“The common thread is this is how they use the lands and waters,” said Tuolimaa.

“There has always been an oral history tradition,” said Gautreau. “Now we’re doing actual mapping of things like where the stories took place, where and what animals were hunted and where and what plants were gathered.”

He said they try to maintain a certain amount of confidentiality but generally they’re interested in game harvesting, fishing, trapping line, plants and natural medicines, access points and cultural sites.

“It’s not a free-for-all knowledge thing,” Lloyd said. “But we would like to know things like this-is-a-moose trail or this-is-a-rabbit swamp.

“If it flies, swims, walks or you can pick it, that’s the information we want.”

She said they’re also hopeful this will lead to jobs for Metis people.

“Who better to work on solar projects or mines than someone who knows the land?” she said.

One of the reasons that the annual Silver Lake Pow Wow continues to attract participants and visitors from near and far year after year is the fact that guests are invited to take part in many of the events. The traditional non-competitive Pow Wow took place this year on August 29 & 30 and when I visited on Saturday, guests were participating in a feather pick up dance where anyone is invited to flex and stretch themselves to the limit as they try to pick up a turkey feather, with only their feet touching the ground and using only their mouth.

Located on the picturesque shores of Silver Lake near Maberly, the traditional Pow Wow event receives no funding from the government and was started over two decades ago by Marie Knapp with the help of Paul Timmerman Sr. The event continues to be funded and organized by members of the local native community and its goal is to share traditional teachings and cultures in the hopes of passing them on to native children and grandchildren as well as to the whole community at large.

The event includes numerous ceremonies and dances that take place around the central arbour area. An on site canteen was run by the Pow Wow committee, who offered up all day meals and snacks and evening feasts on both days. Also on site was a vendors' market area offering up a wide variety of native crafts, jewelry, clothing and regalia.

This year's arena director was Paul Carl, and the MC was Danka Brewer, with fire keeper Alex Brewer, head veteran Sharp Dopler, while Trudy Knapp managed the Pow Wow committee booth. In the arbour this year were three different men's drums that included Soaring Eagle, Big Wind and the Shimmering Water Singers as well as a group of women hand drummers. A wide variety of ceremonies took place around the arbour that included a walking out ceremony for children and young dancers new to the Pow Wow, a dancing out of the new regalia, plus many others.

Exhibition dances and inter-tribal dances also took place; the latter invites all guests, whether donning regalia or not, to take part. The traditional dancers as usual also took the time to show guests their various dance styles.

This year the Pow Wow attracted guests from as far away as British Columbia, the United States, Germany and Japan and I'm sure I heard a family speaking Italian. New this year was a native food vendor offering scone dogs and tacos, a cancer awareness booth, plus a number of workshops that included how to make dream catchers, medicine pouches and moccasins. Danka Brewer said that by incorporating workshops into the event the hope is to “introduce traditional teachings that can be learned by those who do not have exposure to them as well as to expand the teachings of our traditional culture.”