Traditions of Canada’s aboriginal peoples brought to life with Mahikan Trails
by
Rob Alexander
If you are looking for a way to add a distinctive and thoroughly unique twist to your Rocky Mountain holiday, a few days with Mahikan Trails will not only get you away from the crowds and traffic, but will also leave you with some of the knowledge and culture of western Canada’s aboriginal people.
Brenda Holder infuses her 12-year-old guiding business with the traditions, history and practices of her Métis and Cree ancestors.
Holder, a Cree/Blackfoot Métis born and raised in Jasper National Park, who now lives in Canmore, called her business Mahikan, Cree for wolf.
“I was told by one of my elders (the wolf) is my spirit animal so I thought that was a great way to name the company,” Holder says.
Through Mahikan, she offers specific aboriginal-themed tours and courses that teach traditional bush craft along with guiding, team building and multi-day adventures. Each of these courses and trips also include elements of the history and culture of the Métis, a distinct nation of aboriginal people who claim a mix of European and native ancestry. As a people, the Métis emerged during the fur trade that ruled western Canada for nearly 200 years.
For Holder, growing up meant straddling two worlds: native and non-native. Her parents operated two trap lines near Hinton and the stories, history, bush craft and traditional knowledge were a part of her daily life growing up. She also spent a great deal of time visiting family in settlements and reserves.
“I had a pretty fortunate background being raised in non-native and native culture. In other ways it’s kind of difficult because I see both sides of the story and I’m not quite sure how to make them meld together or understand each other. That can be a strange struggle,” she says.
But that struggle allows Holder to offer her clients something unique, to which they respond enthusiastically.
“I find people are quite interested and very excited, and most often very deeply touched. Quite often people are floored by the depth that they got to understand the culture and feel a real special part of it,” Holder says.
To achieve that depth of understanding, for example, Holder will make bannock, a fry-bread common to many Native groups, for her clients on a snowshoe excursion — a common practice among outdoor guides — but Holder uses a closely-guarded family recipe.
“The recipe that I use has been in my family for about 70 years. Native people are really sometimes very competitive about their bannock so they don’t give their recipes away.
The recipe I have is almost sacred to my family,” she says.
Also, Holder will talk with her clients about the Métis role in the birth of the fur and the pemmican trade, before offering some hand-made pemmican, a staple food item of fur traders and Aboriginal people alike.
back to top
|
Brenda Holder, president of Mahikan Trails, infuses her 12-year-old guiding business with the traditions, history and practices of her Metis and Cree ancestors.
“So people are engaged in the story, I pull out some actual pemmican and it really hits home for them and makes it a lot more special.”
Mahikan Trails also teaches skills, such as fire and shelter making and animal tracking – and while not necessarily practical in today’s world, the skills, and the detail Holder is able to provide, ensures a rich, unique experience. The depth of understanding also helps to promote respect in native cultures and knowledge in the topic at hand.
Knowing what an animal was doing at the time it left a set of tracks can breed an appreciation that leads to a sense of respect for that creature.
“I show people how to determine how old the track is right down to an hour. Even other things that seem really, really wingy, but you can tell sometimes, depending on the track with the snowshoe hare, where they have stopped and actually looked to the left or right,” she said.
“Because there’s the old adage of the native person with their ear to the ground going ‘Oh it’s a red wagon’. So that’s what’s in their minds when I say stuff like that, but when you get past the comedy part of it and point out this is what it is all about it becomes real interesting.”
While sharing her culture with visitors is often a daily part of Holder’s life, she also leads camps to help Métis youth connect to their culture and to enforce the idea that they are a people with their own history.
“I like telling the stories of the buffalo hunt but I like having the elders do it because it is exciting and engaging and really, really kicks in that deep level of pride for the youth... It gives them a reaching point of where they can feel really proud of who they are now and their history as well.”
And her work at helping Métis youth discover their own culture is paying off. Last February, Holder was awarded the inaugural Aboriginal Woman Entrepreneur Award of Distinction at the 16th annual Alberta Business Awards of Distinction gala held in Edmonton. She was chosen as a trailblazer in her field and as an inspiration to aboriginal women and girls.
For more information, go to www.mahikan.ca.
Canmore writer Rob Alexander keeps his ear to the ground in the Bow Valley for inspiring ideas.
|
)
