James needs no introduction to this crowd, and we have deep respect for his love of canoe and canoeing. Longtime friend of the Canadian Canoe Museum, James just received Canada’s Meritorious Service Medal from Governor General Julie Payette for his work on reconnecting CCM collection back to its roots in partnership with Indigenous community. On this journey, James is exploring the ways in which the Museum might reinvent itself  and how the canoe might have relevance as a vessel of reconcilliation in a shifting cultural landscape.

With his usual, somewhat off-the-wall style and flair, moved by cultural commentators who have referenced his work as Exhibit A in perpetuating settler notions of “white canoe wilderness,” JR invites symposium attendees into the energized and often uncomfortable ethos of organizational and programmatic innovation that is emerging at the Canadian Canoe Museum and beyond.