Métis around Georgian Bay and throughout the Upper Great Lakes have relied on the water for year-round travel for generations.
Boats, for example, were the main transportation method for the many Métis living on Georgian Bay’s eastern shores or its thirty-thousand islands during the ice-free portion of the year. Dog teams and snowshoes helped ensure that Métis could travel and remain connected during the frozen winter months.
In the late fall and early spring, getting across the bay became a problem. As the early winter ice formed, it became unsafe for travel. Similarly, the spring thaw would make transportation by dog sled or snowshoes unsafe.
During these shoulder seasons, the scoot became a popular form of Métis travel on Georgian Bay since the 1930s. Scoots are “flat-bottomed, propeller-driven watercraft hand-built by residents living around Georgian Bay.”
Métis veteran and Georgian Bay Métis Community member Andrew Trudeau (1924-2013) was one of Georgian Bay’s most famous. Andrew was known in his youth as “waterman” and was often found fishing and working on handmade boats and scoots.
Trudeau’s many works, including his collection of drawings, have been the subject of gallery exhibits, newspaper stories, and documentaries. He is perhaps best remembered for taking to the air in one of his handmade scoots during the annual Penetanguishene Harbour scoot race in 1949.
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