He Ho! Let's go (Voyageur Bop)

I’m not a fan of winter - anything you can’t drive a motorcycle in just doesn’t seem like fun to me. But the one event that can sway me (other than aurora borealis) is western Canada’s biggest winter festival, the wonderful Festivalé du Voyageur.

I had the good luck to photograph this year’s festival for online news outlet ChrisD.ca — my first time at the event since 2020. Go figure, the past few years have been eventful…

My favourite way of working - just wandering, packing just a few lenses - seems to produce my favourite kinds of photographs: small decisive moments that showcase people and light. Did I mention the light? As a festival devoted to the fur trade period of c.1815, the historical re-enactments in Fort Gibraltar have period lighting, namely lantern or window. I absolutely love it.
And you will too. I highly recommend checking out the FDV in the week it has remaining! The website linked has a full schedule.

Louis Gagne twirls a carefully groomed moustache in his role as a French Canadian fur trader at Fort Gibraltar, circa 1815.

Historical re-enactors portraying soldiers hired by Lord Selkirk fire muskets during a demonstration at Whittier Park.

Dancers with the Spirit Sands Singers await the start of a powwow, helping expand the understanding of First Nations presence during the early 19th century fur trade in Manitoba.

Participants in the international snow sculpture contest help their creation take shape near the gates of Fort Gibraltar, in Winnipeg’s Whittier Park.

The currency of the early 1800’s in western Canada - furs, on display in one of the historical re-enactment displays at Festivalé du Voyageur.

Cold air and hot tea, at a display in Fort Gibraltar.

Volunteer blacksmiths work on actual iron items exactly like those needed in everyday life at Fort Gibraltar in 1815.

Winnipeg trio Sweet Alibi performs at the 2023 Festivalé du Voyageur, joining local artists providing sounds from EDM to fiddle and jig to rock.

John Kosse lights up the first night of the 2023 Festivalé du Voyageur. Kosse was one of a group of representatives from the St. Paul Minnesota winter festival attending Winnipeg’s event.

The JD Edwards Band opens the 2023 Festivalé du Voyageur.

Friends, fire, festivalé.

A perennial festival favourite is maple taffy - just add snow and roll.

Initially an accident with leaving my camera on a different setting, I really liked the impressionist effect this had, to give a mood or feeling to this timeless scene. The irony is if I deliberately set out to make a photo like this, I probably wouldn’t do as well as this one!

Walking The Path at the 'Heart of the Continent'

The final day of September this year marked the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a new federal statutory holiday to honour children who died while attending residential schools in Canada, along with the survivors, families and communities still feeling the reverberations of that long-running system.

Here in Winnipeg, several events were held for citizens including a powwow, sacred fires and several rallies and marches.

I had the good fortune to photograph the main march, which began at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and ended at St. John’s Park. From start to end, there was a positivity in the air (even given the many hard and solemn stories to be told) and a real sense of solidarity. There was no mistake about why all were there and who they were there for.
It was also an ideal chance to meet someone or talk to someone you might not normally get the opportunity to. And a simple conversation is a terrific way to learn more.

I’ve always found photography is my ideal way to learn and connect with the world. For this, I was fortunate to experience this first annual event with my cameras. I sense a real shift in public attitudes and awareness, and I feel safe in saying the country is changing permanently from this process.

On a related note: if you or someone you know see yourself in my images, please reach out — I’d be happy to share them with you as a way of saying thanks. I asked each person portrayed here if I could photograph them, but in the rush of the event I didn’t get any contact information, as I normally do in case someone wants a copy of my work for themselves.

People attending a march in the inaugural Truth and Reconciliation Day stream through Winnipeg’s iconic Portage and Main intersection, Thursday afternoon.

People gathered for a march in the first Truth and Reconciliation Day in Winnipeg leave the city’s Human Rights Museum to the city’s downtown. Some held pictures of relatives or loved ones who attended Indian residential schools.

Riley Brown, an Oji-Cree woman from Manitou Rapids First Nation, wears a shawl adorned with handprints of her classmates at Urban Circle Training Centre. She told CBC News she was dancing in the march for missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, residential school survivors and those who did not survive their time in the schools.

An elder smiles as she awaits the start of a march for this country’s inaugural Truth and Reconciliation Day, Thursday morning at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

Thousands of people gathered at the Forks in the centre of the city for the start of a march, as part of Canada’s national Truth and Reconciliation Day. An orange shirt is a symbol of the issue of residential school survivors.

‘Every Child Matters’ is a slogan that has grown out of the increasing national awareness of the issue of residential schools in Canada.

Thousands of people await the start of a march while taking part in national Truth and Reconciliation Day events in Winnipeg, Thursday morning. They almost universally wore orange, making a striking sight as they walked together through the city.

A group of drummers make their way along North Main Street among thousands of others, on their way to a powwow at St. John’s Park, one of the original parks in the city and long a gathering place for First Nations and European people.

A participant in Thursday’s rally spreads her spirit to people sitting in front of the Main Street Project in Winnipeg.

A woman watching a procession for the first Truth and Reconciliation Day raises her arms as thousands of people walk past on North Main Street.

North Main Street, first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, Winnipeg Manitoba.

The grand entry to a powwow held in St. John’s Park makes its way past a capacity crowd gathered for festivities at the first National Day of Truth and Reconciliation in Winnipeg.

Young dancers join a long line of people of all kinds for the grand entry to a powwow held at the end of a march for Truth and Reconciliation Day in Winnipeg.

A Very Different Canada Day

Back when photographing for a daily newspaper, Canada Day was usually pretty straightforward: lots of Maple Leaf flags, maybe some citizenship ceremonies and one of the few chances to photograph a fireworks show.

This year, though, a long pandemic and record-setting heat-waves gave way to the horrific confirmation of something long whispered but never really faced up to in Canada — the deaths of hundreds, maybe thousands of children in church and government run residential schools for First Nations children.

It has completely overshadowed any thought of observing the day, and hopefully it can be more an occasion of thoughtful introspection.

I thought I would take this thought in mind as I went to see a few places for myself today. Not with any preconceived ideas but just to see for myself and leave my thoughts open, as they can only be from a good long walk.
I went to the Forks, a place where rivers have met for millennia and people have also met for almost as long. And I ended the day seeing for myself the provincial Legislature, where a statue of Queen Victoria was toppled by a crowd at the end of a march to mark the coming to light this year of what most First Nations have known for a long time.

Lawrence Cormiere pauses on his walk to Portage and Main in Winnipeg to take part in a rally about hundreds of graves found at sites of former residential schools. Cormiere said he too attended one of the schools as a youth.

A statue of Queen Victoria lies on the ground at the Manitoba Legislature, Thursday evening July 1, 2021.

Flags representing young children who suffered and perished at residential schools in Canada dot the front lawn of the Manitoba Legislature, Thursday evening July 1, 2021.

A man takes a selfie atop a statue of Queen Victoria in front of the Manitoba Legislature, Thursday evening July 1, 2021.

Canadian Red Cross

The Canadian Red Cross saves lives here at home and across the world - whether it’s here in Canada or in Indonesia (where your help is needed after the latest tsunami), or Yemen (the world’s largest single humanitarian crisis) and elsewhere, the sign of the Red Cross tells people help has arrived.

Last summer, the Red Cross helped evacuate hundreds from Little Grand Rapids and Pauingassi First Nations in northern Manitoba after wildfires burned close to those communities. It was a pleasure to photograph their work, and meeting the people helped from a tough situation. One of those photographs was chosen as one of the top ten images from the past year.

Please check out their website and see if you can help out with an aid project, or volunteer for their work here at home.