Arts Midwest

Community members from across Michigan gathered in St. Ignace for a three-day workshop to build a birch bark canoe led by artist Ron Paquin.

The resulting canoe will be displayed as part of the new Gchi Mshiikenh Deh Minising / Heart of the Great Turtle Island Tribal Learning Center in Straits State Park.

Many of Ron’s canoes have been displayed in public venues like the Detroit Institute of Arts or the Ziibiwing Center for Anishinabe Culture and Lifeways, others are used for their original purpose.

The role of canoes goes deeper than transportation; it is a connection to tradition, to lineage, and to the lifeways practiced within Anishinaabe communities across borders for generations.

In 2010, Ron was commissioned by Cecil Pavlat, Sr., to build a canoe to transport the remains of six indigenous ancestors from the Smithsonian back to Batchewana First Nation, a community in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

Read more: https://artsmidwest.org/stories/wiigwaas-jiimaan-building-a-community-canoe-with-ron-paquin/

Photography by Cory Marie Podielski

For these three Midwest arts orgs, accessibility is more than just a core value. It’s a lived practice, rooted in relationships.

Centering the Art of Accessibility