This video tells the story of Canada’s Great River – the Kitchissippi or Ottawa River – running over 1200 kilometres from Lake Temiskaming to Montreal. The waterway was an important highway for the Algonquin and Métis, facilitating migration from summer camps to winter camps, serving as the delivery route for fur and timber, and opening the rest of the country to exploration by Champlain and other explorers. We learn about Fort Témiscamingue (an Algonquin summer gathering place for millennia), the voyageurs’ canoes (canots du maître), portaging, the 1922 Great Fire of Haileybury, the river’s historic and sacred significance, the Hudson’s Bay fur trade post at Mattawa, reclaiming traditional knowledge of sacred sites and pictographs, how timber saved the British navy, and the role of this Canadian Heritage river today.

Filmmaker Bio: An award-winning Métis filmmaker, Matt LeMay is an innovator in the field of educational documentary film. He has channelled his passion for addressing social issues that impact First Nations and Métis communities into documentaries that showcase the power of Indigenous storytelling and the importance of protecting the natural environment.