Left to right, sisters Ava and Ellie Burgess and Lilli Plante, wearing the Capot, traditional wear available for children to try on at the 8th annual Historic Saugeen Métis Rendezvous at Pioneer Park, August 6.

Hub Staff

The 8th annual Historic Saugeen Métis Rendezvous was held on Saturday, August 6 at Pioneer Park, on the shores of Lake Huron.

The event, which is open to everyone and free to attend, is not only an opportunity to share and celebrate the Métis culture, it is also a reunion of sorts. “That’s what rendezvous traditionally were,” said Patsy McArthur, Secretary-Treasurer, Historic Saugeen Métis. “They would come out of the bush each summer and rendezvous at... places like this,” McArthur said.

“[The Métis] have been here 198 years, since recorded at Saugeen.” McArthur added that in addition to Métis music, the main cultural signifiers are the flag and the sash.

Carolyn Myers Boone, Assistant Co-ordinator Lands, Resources, and Consultation, Historic Saugeen Métis, said that each year the festival gets bigger and better. “It’s been wonderful, this is our eighth year.”

The gathering saw everything from music by Canadian Grand Masters Fiddle Champion, Shane Cook performing as Shane Cook and Friends, food, games and information about Métis history and culture. Traditional tools and clothing were on display as well as survival skills demonstrations.

Survival in the Bush Incorporated was on hand with just such demonstrations. “This is a Coureurs de Bois establishment,” said Dr. Gino Ferri, Director of Survival in the Bush Incorporated. “We would have been the Europeans trading with the First Nation.” Coureurs de Bois means runners of the woods. While cutting lacing for braiding into traditional clothing, Ferri said that as independent traders, the Coureurs de Bois would have lived with the First Nation people, emulating their lifestyle, trading with them and marrying them.

Dan Curley, also with Survival in the Bush Incorporated was on hand demonstrating fire starting. Using two methods, flint and steel and fire by friction, Curley expertly started a fire with each method within a minute.

Demonstrating the flint and steel method, his striker produced sparks which he caught using char cloth creating an ember. Once the ember was produced, a tinder bundle consisting of birch bark shell and fluffy, fibrous material was used to make the fire. “I’m going for the shape of a bird’s nest roughly. The ember, much like an egg, goes in the centre of the nest. I put my back to the wind and hold it above my head to keep the smoke out of my face, blow into it.”

The second method, using a bow, spindle and fireboard, was a little more labour intensive but equally effective. Of the Coureur de Bois, Curley said, “We were kind of like the outlaws of the time.”

Jennifer Ferri said Survival of the Bush Incorporated has 12 instructors from all over Ontario, “from Dryden to the Ottawa area,” teaching hands on skills that would have been used in the 1600s to everyone from children to military to corporate clients to First Nation communities. “Nothing goes to waste,” said Jennifer Ferri, adding that it’s about understanding the circle of life and that even in death there is beauty. “It’s all about patience and looking at things with a wide angle vision rather than tunnel vision.”

In two years’ time the Historic Saugeen Métis will be holding a big celebration, celebrating 200 years of the first recorded trader, Pierre Pichet and the Pichet Wampum. Myers Boone explains. “The Pichet Wampum was exchanged from the people of the Saugeen with the Métis traders with Pierre Pichet,” she said. “They invited him to share the land for harvesting.”

Dan Curley, Survival in the Bush Incorporated, with the result of his fire making skills using the fire by friction method. Survival in the Bush Incorporated were representing a Coureurs de Bois establishment. Coureurs de Bois means runners of the woods.

Jennifer Ferri, Survival in the Bush Incorporated, shows off some of the beadwork on display at the 8th annual Historic Saugeen Métis Rendezvous at Pioneer Park, August 6.

Left to right, Tom Morris, Jerrold Beech and Richard Mackey from the North Bruce Trappers, a close group of friends who were on hand sharing their period skills and handiwork.

A voyageur canoe, on display at the 8th annual Historic Saugeen Métis Rendezvous at Pioneer Park, August 6.