Fast Water, Fast Friends Pine Tree Native Centre of Brant
Elements:
Shared Values,Systems
Year: 1996
25 King Street Brantford Ontario N3T 3C4 (519) 752-5132 (519) 752-5612
Fast Water, Fast Friends features the ambiance of the Grand River, the traditional teachings of the First Nations people, and the unlikely pairing of 100 Natives with 100 individuals from police/corrections and the social services sector in a three-hour canoe trip to promote mutual understanding.
Relations between Aboriginals and others in the community have always been somewhat strained, especially between law enforcement and Aboriginal youth. Government-sponsored workshops and seminars were not reaching the target audience as hoped. The canoe trip, traditional feast and social afterwards attracted, youth and reluctant police officers to the event. A lottery paired the partners up, and at certain points along the river, participants are required to work as a team to successfully manoeuvre the fast water and, in others, the relaxing atmosphere is conducive to one-on-one conversation.
The traditional feast, drumming and dancing provided insight into the culture. Community elders delivered words of encouragement to the participants and all were presented with a gift for their involvement on that day. Fast Water, Fast Friends is now a continuing program which has a film and poster distributed across Canada.
