Lilli Plante (left) and Ava Burgess weaved traditional baskets during the ninth annual Métis Rendezvous in August, 2017.
Hub Staff
The Historic Saugeen Métis (HSM) is just a few days away from celebrating 10 years of their annual Rendezvous, traditionally held at Pioneer Park in Southampton (rain venue Southampton Curling Club).
The free event is set to take place on August 11 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and this year will continue the Metis’ celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Saugeen Ojibway Piché String Wampum Exchange with organizers setting up wampum themed displays and a wampum themed children’s craft with traditional Métis displays and cultural demonstrations.
Award winning fiddler Shane Cook & The Woodchoppers will get the toes tapping while deep-fried lake whitefish will be served up for lunch at a moderate price.
For the second year in a row, HSM will be offering guided tours of Aunt Annie’s Historic Métis home at 1 p.m. and 2 p.m., located at 56 Front Street.
Carolyn Myers Boone of the HSM said that visits to Aunt Annie’s were popular during the 2017 Rendezvous and that HSM Councillor and Culture Keeper Jenna McGuire will be leading the tours. Myers Boone asked anyone interested to meet inside the east entrance of Pioneer Park.
“Aunt Annie’s Place is included on the Saugeen Shores Heritage Registry. Angelique (Aunt Annie) Longe was a Métis woman born on the north bank of the Saugeen River in 1844. When she was a little girl, her family would pack up their small sailing vessel with supplies and sail from the mouth of the Saugeen up to the North Shore, trading furs as a family,” said Myers Boone.
“Her small home became a hub in the Métis community as she was a keeper of traditional medicine knowledge and remedies, a midwife, and spoke at least four languages including English, French, Ojibway and Gaelic,” she added.
Myers Boone said people from the community would seek out Longe for advice and converse in the comfort of their native tongue and keep a candle burning in the window at night as a prayer for those still out at sea.
Longe died in 1934 at the age of 90. “Her lasting legacy is why the house is still called today 'Aunt Annie’s'. It has been in the Lange/Longe fur trade family since it was built over 160 years ago. The house is solidly built with a vertical arraying of logs found in early French construction. Many generations of Saugeen Métis people have lived in the house.”
