People

Map Man of Temagami

Written by Neil Wright Thursday, 11 November 2010 00:00

Craig Macdonald, guest speaker at this year's Friends of Temagami AGM, talked about his mapping experience interactions with the indigenous people in the Temagami area.

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Story from Reflections On The Outdoors Naturally by Canoeroots contributor, Mike Ormsby.

This past weekend at the Friends of Temagami AGM, the guest speaker was Craig Macdonald. Craig spoke about the work he did mapping the old routes used by Anishinawbeg or Ojibway people who lived in the Temagami region. This is how it was described in the FOT AGM info:

Craig Macdonald spent nearly 30 years researching and documenting the nastawgan, Temagami's traditional network of summer and winter travel routes. He has studied the history, language and culture of the Anishinawbeg or Ojibway people who lived there for many generations and he has used his experience to create an important window on the land's history.

His seminal work, the Historic Map of Temagami, is crucial to the work Friends of Temagami does protecting and promoting the region's historic canoe routes. It presents a unique and invaluable contribution to our understanding of the aboriginal world that existed in Temagami at the turn of the last century. His work is the defining guide to the "Temagami Wilderness".

This was one of the highlights of the FOT AGM for me. Craig spent several years guiding for Camp Kandalore, a youth tripping camp owned and operated by Kirk Wipper at one time….over the weekend it was great to reminisce with him over folks we mutually knew….of trips he had taken with Kandalore. But what made it so special for me was the information he had compiled over more than 30 years, including interviewing Anishinawbeg (or Ojibway) elders from the area. This information helped him produce the historic map of Temagami. But he also gathered information on how the people lived on the land. Where they traveled. And how they traveled.

Craig was quite willing to answer most questions – those of us present were captivated by his talk – but he was very respectful of the Anishinawbeg. He spoke with reverence for the elders he got to know. About the ways now lost. But certain things – those he said he’d been told in confidence such as certain spiritual practises or burial grounds – he was reluctant to speak about. He spoke the language fluently….and was able to learn so much from talking with the old people, many now who have passed on. But Craig also knew how to travel in the same ways….how to live on the land.

He talked about snowshoeing and camping in the winter….sometimes even going by dog sled. He told about being out one winter with a few others and how they came across snowmobilers very much stuck in slushy snow….their motorized snow machines unable to go on where more traditional methods of travel such as by snowshoe or toboggan didn’t ‘bog down’.

The interesting thing was that Craig and his party were able to rescue the snowmobilers….and that the snowmobilers had been out to find who it was out there in the Temagami backcountry in the winter, trekking about on snowshoes and toboggans. They had seen the tracks of Craig’s group and gone to investigate. But doing so they got stuck.

Craig spoke about being up near Nipigon and snowshoeing 150 miles one winter….but he did so in a matter of fact way….not boastful….just as if it was something anybody did….just something he did naturally, which of course he did. Craig traveled so many miles looking for the old routes….blazes or other markers of the old trails….traveling and living on the land as the Anishinawbeg had. So the map he produced of Temagami was not just based on research in archives….or interviews of elders….but from personal experience too.

Read more about Craig Macdonald and the Temagami area at www.reflectionsoutdoors.wordpress.com and learn more about the Friends of Temagami and their conservation and preservation efforts at www.friendsoftemagami.org.