Here we are in m'chigeeng first nation!
[cheering & applauding]
An anishinaabe community in the heart of manitoulin,
The middle of lake huron,
The centre of the great lakes,
The heart of the turtle.
[cheering & applauding]
In many indigenous creation stories,
North america is a giant turtle.
Being a man of science, I was dubious.
But I've seen these illustrations of
North america as a turtle, and it works.
Alaska is one of the feet.
Newfoundland-labrador is the other one.
Perhaps most convincing, I tried to figure out
Where the butthole would be.
[laughing]
It's new mexico.
That would explain why all the aliens
Take their probes there.
-[laughing] -I'm sold!
But manitoulin island is big.
Manitoulin island is the largest freshwater island
In the world.
This island has more than 100
Inland freshwater lakes.
And a lot of them have islands.
And then you'll find ponds on-
It's like a geographical turducken.
[laughing]
I think that's an idea for a new meal.
You can call it turducken manitoulin.
It's a duck inside a chicken inside a turkey on a turtle.
[laughing]
When you grow up in a small town in newfoundland,
You see that people have a sense of humour
About hard times.
Check, check.
I turned that into a career and hit the road.
[mc] mr. Jonny harris!
Now I'm on a mission to find the funny in the places
You'd least expect it,
Canada's struggling small towns.
Towns that are against the ropes,
But hanging in there...
Still laughing in the face of adversity.
This is m'chigeeng first nation.
♪
Manitoulin island is big,
But I didn't realize how big it was.
In fact, when I got here,
I wasn't sure I was in the right area
Until I looked up on the hill and I saw that sign,
The likes of which I've only ever seen
In hollywood, california.
[laughing]
And looking up at that sign,
Never in my life would I have guessed
M'chigeeng starts with an 'm'.
[laughing]
This island has provided the anishinaabe people with
Ample opportunities for trade.
It became an economic hub.
However, throughout the 1800s,
Colonization ended a once
Self-sustaining way of life.
I got to speak to a woman who told me m'chigeeng,
Unlike a turducken, still has guts.
[laughing]
The youngest ever elected chief of this community,
Chief linda debassige.
[cheering & applauding]
Pre-contact. We utilized this area.
Living and just being sustained off
Of the natural resources.
But having the ability to trade with other nations.
Indigenous people from all over the great lakes region
Would come here to manitoulin island
To trade for fish or,
Or traditional medicines and,
Of course, maple syrup.
Our people were mass producers of
Maple syrup and maple sugar.
We would be producing anywhere from
80,000 pounds of maple sugar to
A half a million pounds of maple sugar a year.
That's like 40 elephants.
Half a million pounds.
That's 40 elephants, she said.
I don't know if that's a common unit of measurement.
[laughing]
Linda said the anishinaabe way of life and
Trades thrived up until colonialism.
There were elements of peaceful coexistence,
Meaning we don't interfere with their life and
Their society and their ways,
And they don't interfere with ours.
After the war of 1812, the mindset of living in
Coexistence with one another shifted.
They wanted to open up the lands for further settlers to
Do farming and bring more people over.
And then came treaties and policies that would
Severely impact indigenous people.
And the reserves were created in m'chigeeng.
We weren't allowed to practice our culture
And traditions.
And we were also not legally allowed to
Sell anything like our maple sugar,
As we did before.
We would need to get permission to leave
The boundaries of the reserve.
That treaty is disputed to this day.
And there's a lot of theories on
How this treaty was ever affected.
And a lot of people suggest that the language used
Did not accurately translate to anishinaabe,
Particularly because all the language
Dealt with land ownership.
We did not have a sense of land ownership at all.
-Like that did not exist. -Right.
It was stewardship.
This will sound like a harebrained analogy,
But when I was thinking about it, it was-
It's almost like you're having a beer
In your local bar,
And a tourist shows up and asks for the bathroom.
You're like, "yes, sure it's over there."
And then 20 minutes later,
You're knocking on the door, you're like,
"ah, I gotta get in there."
And they're like, "ah, well, no, you can't.
I asked for the bathroom. You said, sure.
I own it now."
[laughing]
You're like, "well, this sucks,
I guess I'm gonna leave." and they're like, "well,
You're gonna need a permission slip for that."
[laughing]
But linda said that things are changing now,
And changing now more than ever.
Even though all of those things were put on us
Outside of our control or permission,
Our community has become so resilient.
There's a lot of new entrepreneurs,
New businesses.
There's a new energy, literally, green energy,
You see the windmills up on the hills.
There's new, interesting schools here,
Post-secondary schools.
There's the weengbush film institute.
Actually, funnily enough, there was a screenwriter
In los angeles that I went to theatre school
With in newfoundland who taught a class at
Your film institute here in m'chigeeng.
Now, you tell me, does that mean
Big turtle or small world?
[laughing]
♪
We took the responsibility of helping to empower
Our people, and that's what we do today.
The people of m'chigeeng...
Are, are strong, proud, progressive...
And still here.
You know what I think?
I think I wouldn't want to run against you
In an election.
Chief linda, I know for a fact
She is dedicated to her job.
She told me about when she gave birth to her daughter,
And at the same time,
Attended a community meeting.
We had a meeting scheduled with
Indigenous services canada.
It was to get a water line to our community.
There was no way I was going to miss a meeting and so,
I met with them online
While I was in labour at the hospital.
She was literally in the bed
In the hospital
In a meeting on zoom.
[laughing]
I said, "what was the meeting about?" she said,
"town water." I said, "let me guess, it broke?"
[laughing]
Did they not tell from the camera that
You were in the hospital?
I had a virtual background,
And I had a shawl over me.
So, you didn't see my hospital gear.
Whenever I had a contraction or labour pain,
I just simply turned off my video and
Allowed the conversation to continue.
She said she wasn't gonna miss the meeting.
I said, "even though you're squeezing out a kid?!"
[laughing]
Talk about a new person has entered the chat.
[laughing]
Finished that meeting just after 5pm.
I gave birth to my daughter about an hour later.
I think her next election campaign poster,
It should say, "linda debassige,
When it comes to her people,
She will push, push, push!"
[laughing & applauding]
♪
M'chigeeng is also home to kenjgewin teg,
A post-secondary institution.
I went over to the campus, and I sat down with
Beverly roy and wayne trudeau.
[cheering & applauding]
♪
Kenjgewin teg offers a wide variety of programs from
Trades to a nursing school to undergraduate degrees.
But a big part of the curriculum there is to
Reclaim cultural knowledge.
We really bring in our anishinaabe culture,
Our language, our identity into students' learning.
You'll see different structures and tools that
We use to really engage our students
In reclaiming some of that back through song,
Dance, culture, history, teachings.
We're connecting them about who they are,
What they want to do with their life,
Finding some meaning, finding some purpose.
And even though they're with us just for a short time,
We're hoping to instill that little spark.
To learn who you are is...
Something- actually I can't really speak to it,
I don't know much about it.
I went to theatre school, really that's the opposite.
I learned to pretend to be other people.
[laughing]
Because the school is still relatively small,
They can really focus on the individual student.
And they'll guide students in creating a bundle,
Which is a collection of objects,
Things that help connect somebody to
Their spirituality and purpose.
Bundle items, it could come from nature,
It could be crafted from materials collected from
Nature as well.
But it could also be trinkets,
Things that were left to you that have
A really deep meaning.
Maybe you've got something that you think
Someone else would benefit from more,
And you could give it to them, if you can let it go.
Sometimes it's hard to let things go.
And sometimes you can't.
Sometimes they don't let you.
At least if it's anything like my bundle.
Like, my bundle included a landline...
[laughing]
Along with the cable and internet, and I...
I told them, I said, "I, I don't even-
I don't need a landline.
I don't even own a landline phone."
They were like, "well, it's part of your bundle."
[laughing]
♪
When I found out I wasn't the only tv host in town,
I knew I had to hunt someone down...
And come up with a joke.
What do deers, ducks and an
Outdoorsman tv show all have in common?
They've all been shot by neil debassige,
From fuel the fire television,
Neil and darci debassige.
[cheering & applauding]
They make a tv show-
It might have some guns and some shooting,
But 'fuel the fire' is truly a family show.
As a kid, I grew up with
Mutual of omaha's wild kingdom,
Lorne greene's wild america, all of those shows
That was what I aspired to be was in nature.
And being an educator and
A hunting and fishing expert,
He wanted to pass on his knowledge.
And so, we forged ahead and tried to start a
Television program knowing nothing about tv.
Without a crew, especially in the early days
Of the show, neil put his family to work-
His wife, diane,
His daughters, darci and aspen-
They all got put to work operating the cameras and
Lugging supplies and getting gear and
Co-starring on the show.
[whispering] hey folks. It's September 5th.
Darci and I are gonna go for a walk.
We did see a decent buck the other night.
Because of the nature of where we live,
It makes it a little bit easier to be a participant.
And I'm going to look back when I'm an old man-
Having that memory is priceless.
[whispering] awesome, I thought
They were gonna bump into us!
Me too!
I thought they were gonna come right at us.
Neil's family is obviously the fuel to his fire.
But that's tricky, right?
Like your family is not the most renewable fuel and,
As employees, they are impossible to fire.
[laughing]
My earliest memories...
Were probably being in the deer stand and,
Dad's recording me, and we're eating chips,
And I have to be like, okay,
We have to be quiet for this one.
And then you can just hear me chomping.
[laughing]
Kids around here, they are wood savvy.
They learn lessons when they go to the city.
It's like, "oh, no darci, honey.
You, you can't take your compound bow.
This is a petting zoo."
[laughing]
♪
Neil, he cooked up some fish for us.
It was some bass.
Neil caught it earlier that day.
♪
They're frying up the bass, and at one point I was like,
"oh, so, you know, what other kinds of fish
Can you catch in this lake?"
And these two, they give each other a look like,
"oh, well. Where do we even start?"
[laughing]
And darci looks at her dad and goes,
"well, let's go seasonally."
And they start rattling off all the fish that
You can catch in the lake by season.
-[laughing] -bass, perch, walleye.
I feel like these two, they're not just family...
They're fisherman's friends.
[laughing & applauding]
[indistinct conversation]
You know, I found out this little bit of country is a
Little bit rock and roll when I met a woman
Who carries a torch for heavy metal.
I talked with welder and artist,
Kathryn corbiere.
[cheering & applauding]
Welding was like something
I wanted to do just to become a welder.
Like there's so many people in my family
That are trades workers.
So, I thought was following in their footsteps and then...
Got my tickets, and then couldn't find
A job around here, and then...
Started developing art.
Most people, they want to go into the arts
And then there's not a lot of money.
She's the only person who's like, "I learned a trade,
But I mean, in the end, you know,
I had to follow my passion and creativity.
You got to pay the bills."
[laughing]
Kathryn's most famous piece sits on the
Floor of the toronto stock exchange.
They essentially said, "can you design something
Targeting like trade, indigenous relations with
Non-indigenous peoples and the history of canada?"
[crackling]
So she made this huge steel piece,
And it's got to be about 13 feet high and
At least as wide.
She said the sculpture itself is 500 pounds,
And it sits on a limestone base that's 1500 pounds.
All in all, around 2,000 pounds...
Or as you guys might say, half an elephant.
[laughing]
♪
She said she drove it down to the
Toronto stock exchange on a trailer with her pickup.
She's driving it down in the thick of toronto traffic
In the middle of the financial district.
And she's trying to keep out of the way,
And there's are people honking at her.
The plan was to lift it in with a couple of cranes,
And then the cranes break down.
She gets her, her brother-in-law and
A couple of guys from his boxing gym,
And the operators of the cranes that didn't work,
They jump in, and they all get these straps under the,
Under the base and they're lifting.
You can see pictures of these guys
Shuffling this limestone base along.
It's a pretty cool story.
And kathryn's pretty cool, herself.
Kathryn's a pretty cool customer.
Like at one point I tried to make a joke,
I was like, "oh, listen, kathryn," I was like,
"next time you're in toronto,
And you're looking for some strong muscle guys..."
And she just looked at me very
Coolly and said, "give you a call?"
[laughing]
So I'll do just like a little, tiny one.
-Yeah? -So you can see.
And then you'll go next.
So we were gonna do some mig welding.
When you get good at it,
It creates this nice beading pattern.
Welders are super into this bead stuff.
Very cool.
So you want them to kind of be visually,
Aesthetically pleasing.
On instagram, she's got people commenting like,
"oh yeah, those are some great beads."
Comments were like,
"those beads are like sexy,"
And there's just a lot of "sexy" describing
About welding beads. "sexy af."
"your beads are sexy af," one person wrote.
-[laughing] -right?
Which we all know means
Your beads are sexy and fun.
[laughing]
And then I gave it a go.
[laughing]
Oh my god! It's brutal.
It looks awful, it was terrible.
It looked like somebody broke a thermometer and
Just sort of flicked it at...
No technical merit, a lot of artistic.
I'm like the jackson pollock of welding.
[laughing]
It gave me so much more of an appreciation
Of what she does.
Like, her piece at the tsx,
It depicts a piece...
Of birch bark.
And birch bark was the material used to
Make canoes and pails, sap pails,
The very tools once used to carry maple sugar,
The anishinaabe's greatest trading resource.
And she said the curvature of the bark represents
A turn away from historical events,
A turn towards a better time, change.
And today, right next to the tsx stock ticker,
Stands this great symbol
Of indigenous trade.
So yeah, sexy af.
[laughing]
[applauding]
Finally, I got to take part in a bit of a
Thursday night m'chigeeng tradition...
With the rainbow ringers.
I met two sisters,
Tiffany debassige and daisey hayward.
[cheering & applauding]
Horseshoes, you play with a teammate, a partner.
This is the way I shoot.
You got to find your comfortable spot.
Yeah, and then I just...
Shoot like that.
Daisy and tiffany filled me in on
Some of the lingo they use.
So, you take a shot and there's all these
Weird names for different-
You could get a "kiss and a miss".
-Oh, nice one, nice one. -So that's a "kiss and a miss".
Or, you could get a woody.
-There you go. -Agh!
See, that would've been called a woody.
-Woody? -Yeah.
'cause it hit the wood there.
Woody! You got a woody!
People are yelling that out all over the pitch.
"oh, you got a woody!"
It was like...
[laughing]
And then they told me one,
The "newfoundlander flip", they called it.
-There it is. -There it is!
-Hey! -Oh, no!
-That doesn't count? -No!
-Ah! -'cause it hit the woody.
You got a woody there.
And that's why we call it a newfoundlander flip.
So, that's when you shoot your horseshoe,
And it hits the dirt, and it flips over,
And it hits a ringer.
It's like a fluke shot.
Now, I don't take offense to much.
[laughing]
But if you're talking about a newfoundlander...
Who does something poorly,
Yet somehow manages to fluke into success...
[laughing]
That's a little on the nose.
[laughing]
I'm gonna let it go. It's gonna be-
It's gonna be harder to let go than
My landline, but I'm letting it go.
[laughing]
Oh! You got it in the box!
In this community, some moves were
Suggested in treaties contested.
Indian agents found trouble to stir up...
Giving nothing but lip, and demanding a slip for
Permission to tap trees for syrup.
But the times they are a changin',
From the days of forbidden tradin'.
New schools keep history from repeating.
Warriors now wield steel
And are strong enough for real
To simultaneously give birth and have meetings.
[laughing]
Some people say where you lay your head is home.
Though, finding home for some is still trying.
Still, they learned the important part
Ain't the head but instead the heart.
And for m'chigeeng that home's
The heart of turtle island.
Thanks for coming out, everybody.
You've been amazing!
[cheering & applauding]
♪
I was dying out there.
My eyes were watering, and I'm like,
"what's next? What's next?"
♪
Yeah, he didn't like weld great,
But I definitely felt the bond between jonny and I.
Oh my god, that is terrible!
The show hit all the marks, and being the heart of,
Of turtle island, I love that concept.
♪
He did better than my first time playing.
-Hey! -Oh!
-That doesn't count- -doesn't count?
-No. -Ah!
[speaking indigenous language]