Paddling to Reconciliation – an Intercultural Women’s Canoe Trip

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NIMIS KAHPIMOTATE (SISTER JOURNEY) is an intercultural  Wilderness Canoe Adventure that will take place  from Saturday June 20th, 2015 to Friday June 26th 2015 (packing the afternoon or evening of June 19th) in Northern Saskatchewan. It includes a Preparation Day May 23rd or June 6th, the Canoe Trip in June and other opportunities to Build and Share our Relationships before and after the trip. The 2012 – 2014 trips have included First Nations (residential school survivors and intergenerational survivors) and non First Nations women in their 20’s through 60’s. In 2012, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (www.trc.ca) was traveling throughout Saskatchewan as part of its 5 year mandate to travel across Canada to listen to and record the truth about Indian Residential Schools, and to begin a process of healing and reconciliation for all Canadians. In light of this, a group of Saskatchewan women, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal,  planned a canoe trip as one concrete way of sharing truths and stories with each other, nurturing friendships and encouraging healing and reconciliation with each other, and between their communities. What they experienced was something extraordinary, a journey in more ways than one, and it was clear that the trip had to become an annual occurrence.  The annual trips have taken place with equal success. In the words of one woman, “We also celebrated our diverse backgrounds and our common experiences as participants. Even in sharing our woes, our struggles, our pains, we celebrated the safe space we created for one another. A place where individuals could speak of the effects of racism, segregation, and alienation without ever feeling as though we were speaking to or listening as perpetrators of those injustices. We spoke to each other as people – as sisters – and were able to use that space to heal”. Plans are now underway for the 2015 trip.  If you are a woman, feel deeply and passionately about nurturing friendships and strong relationships between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians and either have experience on canoe trips or a desire for this new adventure in some of northern Saskatchewan’s most beautiful wilderness, please read on and find out how you can become involved!