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From Manitoulin Island to the Reid Lake Fall Fair September 21st, 2011

My visit last week to the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation (OCF) on Manitoulin Island was inspiring.  The OCF’s executive director, Alan Corbiere, gave me a tour of the museum display, shared books and articles with me, and took me to Manitowaning, where Sir Francis Bond Head signed a treaty with the Anishinaabe people in 1836.  My guest lecture on Bond Head’s visit to Manitoulin was well-received, and afterwards I was presented with a wonderful book entitled Stories of Our Elders (published by the OCF) and a braided sweetgrass placemat featuring an image of a turtle embroidered on birch bark.  Very nice.  Mere minutes after I got home on Friday afternoon (after a long drive from Manitoulin to Toronto followed by flights to Vancouver and Prince George), I heard my song “Sentimental Movies” on CBC Radio’s “All Points West,” which was quite a thrill given that I’m not exactly a radio regular!  The next evening I was on stage at the Reid Lake Fall Fair, where I played a one-hour set to open for The Bone Spurs, who really rocked the place.  All in all, a busy week.