A Magical Place

In so very many ways, the duality and intermixing of Manitoulin’s parallel cultures–First Nations people and the descendents of nineteenth century farming pioneers–define Manitoulin and make the world’s largest island in fresh water undeniably unique.

You’re a visitor who has decided to explore Manitoulin Island and you decide to journey from southern Ontario, up the Bruce Peninsula to Tobermory and make the ferry trip across Georgian Bay part of your holiday plan.

The ferry is named the M.S. Chi-Cheemaun, or “Big Canoe” in the Ojibwe language.

When the ship was being built in Collingwood between 1972 and 1974 to go into service in our waters, the Ontario government had a naming contest and the name “Chi-Cheemaun”, submitted by a resident of the Cape Croker First Nation on the Bruce Peninsula, was chosen the winner.

You ride the Big Canoe across the deep waters of Georgian Bay and you, your car, truck, bicycle or motorcycle disembark at the community of Sagidawong, the Ojibwe name for the modern town of South Baymouth, where the English name is merely a direct translation of the name that First Nations people had called this land feature for thousands of years. North on Highway 6, you’ll come to the town of Manitowaning, while a left turn onto Highway 542 will take you to the busy commercial hub of Mindemoya. These are examples of communities that have retained their traditional Ojibwe names (there are many more) and signals to tourist visitors that, on Manitoulin Island, the cultures here are inextricably linked. Take Manitowaning which is, in spite of its name and that of its surrounding municipality (Assiginack), one of Manitoulin’s commercial centres where the older homes and businesses were built and founded by pioneers of Irish, Scots and English heritage.

The ferry is named the M.S. Chi-Cheemaun, or “Big Canoe” in the Ojibwe language.

This having been said, Manitowaning is also the home base of De-ba-jeh-mu-jig Theatre group, an internationally-acclaimed professional First Nations theatre troupe that operates out of its Creation Centre in the community’s downtown.

Summertime offerings at the theatre, when the actors are in residence, can be accessed at www.debaj.ca and by scanning the Manitoulin Island newspaper, The Manitoulin Expositor (where you can also learn what’s happening at Manitoulin’s other theatre, the Gore Bay Theatre during July. www.gorebay.ca) But the presence of the First Native theatre, in Manitowaning which is, in turn, within Manitoulin Island, is one of those “wheels within wheels” experiences you’ll discover to your delight throughout your Manitoulin visit.

When you take Cardwell Street out of Manitowaning, the roadway that is the only land link to the enormous double peninsula that is the Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory, you’ll pass by two institutions that are important to Manitoulin but each of which represent Manitoulin’s unique cultural duality. The Assiginack Curling Club and the clubhouse for the Rainbow Ridge Golf Course are both located where Clover Valley Road intersects with Cardwell Street and give the impression of sharing a common parking lot because of their proximity to one another.

The Rainbow Ridge Golf Course, however, is owned and operated as a public course by the Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory while the Assiginack Curling Club is operated by a community board for the benefit of the local folks for whom the game is a winter passion.

More wheels within wheels as the two recreational facilities, both hosting sports with Scottish origins, exist side by side where they each welcome the broad community to play their respective games and yet each is operated by one of Manitoulin’s cultural communities.

While these last are unique examples of cultural cooperation, they do serve to underscore the fact that, when you are on Manitoulin, you are living within a mosaic that has been carefully crafted by municipal and First Nation neighbours over the past 150 years.

Not that the going has been always easy, for it has not. But common sense here has taught the people of Manitoulin, whether their ancestors were the long-time First Nation inhabitants of the place or the descendants of the pioneer settlers, how to live, work and play together and to respect one another’s traditions and this is something of which everyone can be justly proud.
People celebrate their own, local heritage too and you are invited to join them as a visitor.

Every First Nation community, for example, hosts at least one cultural festival, usually referred to as a powwow. The one over Civic Holiday weekend in Wiikwemkoong is the largest and oldest and spans four days. It is also a competitive event and is a stop on a North American powwow circuit where dancers compete for prize money. It’s a big, major event and, historically, is the oldest powwow in Central Canada. (Visionary people from Wiikwemkoong revived the tradition in 1961 and all of Ontario’s First Nations powwows have evolved from this pivotal event more than a half-century ago.)

The rest of the First Nations communities celebrate “Traditional” powwow events which are non-competitive and are held to celebrate and showcase each community’s own traditions as homecoming events and as a series of major summertime festivals. All of them welcome tourist visitors and all of them have traditional crafts and food for sale by local vendors.

But the sharing of culture on Manitoulin is nearly inexhaustible: dedicated volunteer groups in virtually all of Manitoulin’s municipalities have created local museums to maintain aspects of their particular heritage.

In South Baymouth, where the ferry docks, the museum originated in the community’s one-room school (it’s located just before the ferry terminal) which has since seen other buildings added within the old schoolyard to house more artifacts and displays.

In Mindemoya, the feature is a covered bridge that leads to a display of pioneer farm implements. In Gore Bay, the old jail is the basis for a museum that has expanded to include art gallery and studio space at its original site and now on the waterfront as well. In Meldrum Bay, whose origins were as a pioneer fishing village, the museum reflects this as it is located in an historic net-mending building and there are other equally unique places that reflect local culture in Sheguiandah and Manitowaning.

Art abounds and there are privately run galleries in Wiikwemkoong, M’Chigeeng, Little Current, at 10 Mile Point along Highway 6, in Gore Bay, on Lake Kagawong at Perivale, on the shores of Dominion Bay, in Kagawong village and in many other locations.

The variety of work they display is enormous, of high quality and showcases Manitoulin’s dual cultures.

Manitoulin Island is culturally diverse but at the same time it is all one place.

There is much to see and learn on Magical Manitoulin. We look forward to sharing these experiences with you.