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Gathering of Canoes highlights long-running reconciliation effort

The dots on the horizon will slowly grow bigger, taking the form of around 20 traditional canoes. As they approach the shore, the canoe families will begin to observe traditional protocol. They’ll line up side by side in the water.
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The Pulling Together journey has built bridges between First Nations and police for 16 years.

 

The dots on the horizon will slowly grow bigger, taking the form of around 20 traditional canoes.

As they approach the shore, the canoe families will begin to observe traditional protocol. They’ll line up side by side in the water. Paddlers will raise their oars in salute, and their spokesman will ask permission to land at what is today called Vanier Park.

Friday’s scheduled landing, for an event called the Gathering of Canoes, will allow the public to witness the First Nations traditions surrounding the canoe, a vital plank of West Coast Indigenous culture.

For the paddlers involved, it will mark the last-but-final stop on this year’s Pulling Together journey, a 10-day, 70-kilometre expedition that started in Sechelt and swung north up Howe Sound to Squamish, before heading south again to Vancouver.

It’s been a profound trip for Linda Blake, vice-president of the Pulling Together Canoe Society.

“Until you’re in the water, in the middle of the ocean, going through those winds, you don’t realize the beauty of what we live in. It’s a very different view,” says Blake over the phone from Porteau Cove on Howe Sound, where the canoes have just come ashore for the day.

 

The Gathering of Canoes is one of the signature events of Canada 150+, the City of Vancouver’s program to include the long and rich history of First Nations in this year’s sesquicentenary celebrations.

But Pulling Together has been promoting inclusion for 16 years, and arguably defined the concept of reconciliation before the term was used in dialogue with Canada’s Indigenous people.

These annual journeys have been organized along the traditional Aboriginal highways of river, lake and sea since 2001, when canoes travelled down the Fraser River from Yale and across the Salish Sea to Gibsons, visiting many First Nations communities on the way and sharing their food and culture.

As well as reconnecting West Coast First Nations with their own culture through the symbol of the canoe, Pulling Together was intended to build understanding between Indigenous people and law enforcement. Inspired by the Vision Quest trip taken down BC’s coast in 1997, the first Pulling Together journey saw representatives of the RCMP, Vancouver Police, West Vancouver Police and Delta Police take part.

Members of other public services have since been invited on board; this year, they include the Royal Canadian Navy and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

The event has also seen a growing focus on the involvement of Aboriginal youth, who now comprise about 60 per cent of the paddlers, estimates Blake, who has taken part in every Pulling Together journey.

She says it’s still remarkable to see how relationships grow among the paddlers as they face common challenges on their journey, such as the notorious winds that develop on Howe Sound in the afternoon.

“The energy starts to change in such a positive way,” says Blake, an RCMP officer who is half Tahltan. “We’ve gone through adversity on the water in terms of wind and waves. ... Now you’ll see that helping and assisting and being there, a lot of positive energy.”

That energy has powered reconciliation since the first Pulling Together voyage, Blake believes.

“We put Aboriginal youth and elders into canoes with police officers, [staff from] public service agencies. We live, we eat, we paddle, we put canoes up onto land overnight, we bring them down to the water, we launch them, and we fight wind and water and mileage together.

“That 10-day journey opens opportunities to see each other without the uniforms and the stereotypes we tend to bring to relationships. … That reliance on each other, that proximity and that common goal creates this unbelievable opportunity to open themselves, to maybe give a police officer a chance, or take off the stereotype of an Aboriginal person and recognize that they’re not all that way.”

As Blake speaks over the phone, a song begins in the background. Soon it is joined by drums. It’s a welcome for the paddlers sung by representatives of the Squamish Nation, inviting them to their land, to eat, rest and take shelter there.

“It’s one of the things we do on our journey, we’re learning and respecting the First Nations cultures,” Blakes says. “The way we bring in our canoes, the way we do protocol, how we serve food, respect the elders. That helps our public service agencies and law enforcement have a better understanding of our First Nations friends and it makes for such a better dialogue when it comes to work.”

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As well as reconnecting West Coast First Nations with their own culture through the symbol of the canoe, Pulling Together was intended to build understanding between Indigenous people and law enforcement. - Contributed photo
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Members of other public services have since been invited on board; this year, they include the Royal Canadian Navy and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. - Contributed photo


Those witnessing the Gathering of Canoes at Vanier Park will hear a similar song travel across the waters of English Bay. The paddlers will be invited ashore, and will reverse their canoes to show their landing is not an aggressive one.

There will be food, too, with salmon and bannock, bison burgers, smoked meat and hot dogs available for everyone attending the event. Paddlers will then be given a send-off as they leave for their final destination of West Vancouver.

Like the other Canada 150+ events, the Gathering of Canoes aims to be as inclusive as possible to further foster reconciliation.

“We haven’t truly celebrated Indigenous cultures and contributions to this country, not in the way that the general public feels like they’re welcome to be a part of this and to witness,” says Ginger Gosnell-Myers, Aboriginal relations manager with the City of Vancouver, who helped develop the Canada 150+ program.

“The events that we’re planning … I think people are going to be very surprised and super happy to see. It’s going to be different, exciting and meaningful.” 

 

• Follow the Pulling Together journey on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The Gathering of Canoes takes place 
Friday, July 14 from 11am-4pm. Canoe landing expected at 11:30am) at Vanier Park.