The Onakawana Education Fund; an Indigenous land-based initiative run by William and Pamela Tozer, members of the Moose Cree First Nation of Northern Ontario. 

 

Each year, the fund provides an opportunity for approximately 200 Indigenous youth from across Ontario to visit Camp Onakawana in the wild and beautiful James Bay lowlands, cost free. Onakawana is in Mushkegowuk territory, ancestral homeland of the Moose Cree at the confluence of the Onakawana and Abitibi rivers. 

 

The Tozers have been bringing Indigenous youth to the camp for more than 30 years to take part in traditional Cree activities, such as shelter-making, fishing, paddling, snowshoeing and small-game tracking and trapping. Students learn about the territory’s geography and history from the point of view of its original people. They engage in water monitoring and testing and learn the importance of water stewardship. Indigenous Elders introduce them to traditional arts, such as weaving tamarack birds, beading, moccasin-making, drum-making, painting and encourage creative writing about these experiences.

 

To date, more than 3,000 young people have participated in the Camp Onakawana experience.