River of Forgiveness
The interactive experience
River of Forgiveness
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A journey down one of the world’s most remote rivers in a mooseskin boat.
Prologue
In a remote corner of Canada's Northwest Territories, high in the Mackenzie mountains, a small stream flows through bright green fields of moss and lichen. It's making its way towards the dense tree line of the valley below, where it will pool and form a series of lush ponds surrounded by tall sedge grass and a thick tangle of spruce, aspen and birch.
These are the headwaters of the South Nahanni, one of the most unique rivers in the world. From here the river will flow past jagged granite peaks, cliffs and caves, through foaming whitewater and powerful rapids. It will plunge over a drop twice the size of Niagara Falls and race through towering canyons before settling into a maze of braided channels that will join a larger river, and then another one, and finally, the Arctic Ocean.
On a narrow gravel bank, 80 kilometres downriver, a small group of people are gathered around a campfire in front of a canvas tent. They are Dene, descendants of the people that have lived in this area for tens of thousands of years. To them the river and the land it flows through are sacred. A way to reconnect with their ancestors. A way to remember, to forgive, to heal.
And that’s exactly what they are trying to do. They have come here to build a boat, out of spruce, sinew and moose hide, the way their ancestors did, hundreds of years ago. The plan is to take the boat on a roughly 500-kilometre trip, down the Nahanni and into Fort Simpson where the Liard river meets the mighty Mackenzie.
And like most adventures, not everything will go according to plan.
Treaty Day
A stack of $5 bills and a dark history.
Day 1
Treaty Day celebrations in Fort Simpson. The crew meet each other, some of them for the first time. Equipment and hides are packed.
It's Treaty Day in Fort Simpson, a small village 500km west of Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories. In the local community centre, a long line of Dene are waiting to collect their “treaty payment", a crisp five dollar bill. They are River Dene, or Dehcho, the Indigenous name for the Mackenzie River. They are also are the descendants of the original signatories of Treaty 11, the last treaty signed between the Dominion of Canada and Indigenous People. Toddlers and elders mill around smiling, waiting to shake the hand of a young Mountie in full dress uniform. There will be a drum circle later that evening and a communal dinner.
The festive mood belies the troubled history of these payments and the complex relationship between First Nations and the Canadian government.
On the other side of town, Grand Chief Herb Norwegian is inspecting a stack of moose hides. They are crucial to the boat they want to build and the journey they are about to take. A journey inspired in part by his personal connection to the fallout from Treaty 11.
Herb Norwegian“There was a swell of people in the community that saw the treaty take place, and they knew exactly what it meant... Our people got shafted.”
In the summer of 1921, Herb’s great-grandfather Johnny Norwegian was chosen to negotiate the treaty for the Dehcho. As a young man, Johnny had been in Fort McMurray for the signing of Treaty 8 in 1899. He had witnessed what the government agents were truly after, the land.
When the agents showed up in Fort Simpson, some 22 years later, he insisted on written guarantees that the land would remain Dene. According to witnesses, while Johnny was briefly absent, officials reached out to another elder, who promptly signed the treaty.
Treaty 11
North America has a long and dark history with Indigenous people and the Dene are no exception. The first contact with the Europeans upended an ancient way of life and the new culture imposed by the settlers was foreign and disorienting to the Dene.
Their loss was written into law with implementation of the Indian Act and the Numbered Treaties. The treaties were more than just contracts for land, they formed part of a national strategy to erase indigenous identity by granting the government power over First Nations’ finances, education and religious practices.
Treaty 11 remains one of the more controversial. It was the last treaty drafted, acquired the largest expanse of land and was signed under questionable circumstances.
For the most part, the government had paid little attention to the Dene. After the decline of the fur trade, there was little money to be made this far North. All that changed in 1920 with the discovery of oil near Fort Norman.
Henry A. Conroy, one of the same government representatives that had secured Treaty 8 in Fort McMurray, realized what this meant: “...in my opinion it would be desirable to take a surrender of this territory from the Northern Chiefs as soon as possible in order to avoid complications with respect to the exploitation of the country for oil”. The last of the Numbered Treaty was hastily drafted and Conroy was dispatched to get it signed.
There would be no negotiation.
A Motley Crew
The Adventure Begins.
Day 3
The boat builders from Tulita arrive. The rest of the equipment is packed and loaded onto floatplanes. The crew says goodbye.
Herb has been thinking about this trip for the better part of 15 years. When he was a kid, his dad used to take him on the river, telling stories of Dene hunters and their mooseskin boats. Of a time before the settlers took their language, their culture, their children.
He’s seen the results of colonialism first-hand. There are few opportunities for the young people in his community and too many of them get caught in a vicious cycle of unemployment, substance abuse and despair. Now he fears that they are slowly losing their connection to the land, the very thing that makes them Dene. The one thing he knows will help them heal.
Herb Norwegian“It's about picking up the pieces... It's crawling out of the ashes of colonialism.”
This is why he’s been talking to elders and coming up with a plan. He will take a group of Dehcho far up the river to learn how to build a traditional mooseskin boat. If they succeed, it might just rekindle a sense of pride, of hope; not just for them but for the entire community.
For the most part, they are young, Lory Ann works in a community centre in Nahanni Butte and Rochelle is in university. Lawrence hosts a popular radio show on CBC North. Lisa is an artist and craftswoman in Trout Lake. Marcel is a Parks Canada officer and John an artist and sculptor. None of them have ever done anything like this before.
The Dehcho have made mooseskin boats before, but it has been a hundred years since the last one was seen on the Nahanni. It's the Shuhtaot’ine or Mountain Dene on the Keele River have kept the mooseskin boat building tradition alive. Herb has asked five of them to join him on this trip. Leon, Robert and Ricky are accomplished boat builders and their niece Corinne and her friend Beatrice are experts in sewing the hides so they withstand the dangerous trip down the river. They will lead the building of the boat.
Mooseskin Boats
With the arrival of the first Europeans in the late 1700s came the fur trade and with it the Hudson’s Bay Company. Every spring, the Dene would travel down the South Nahanni River with a winter's take of furs and dried meat from moose, caribou and sheep to trade at the company's outposts. Their boats needed to withstand the rigours of the mountain rapids, and the design was similar to the Hudson’s Bay York boats. The boats, which could be up to 20 metres in length, were constructed from six to ten untanned moose skins stitched together with backbone sinew and stretched over a spruce frame.
These massive boats would transport entire families, their dogs and cargo down the river during high water. Upon arrival at the fort, the boat was dismantled and the hides and wood re-purposed. Following a visit with relatives in the Dehcho area, and with autumn’s arrival, families would make their way back up to the high country, travelling on foot or by dog team. They were following the animals on their migration to the mountains, where the winter climate was milder than in the lowlands.
The Hides
A series of unexpected developments.
Day 12
The Mountain Dene are uncomfortable with some of the hides brought from Fort Simpson. Lawrence’s hunt for moose is successful. Over the next few days, the new moose hides are cleaned, scraped, and sewn together with sinew.
After several days of soaking in the river, the hides are ready to be sewn. But there’s a problem. Preparing moose skins for clothing and bead work requires them to be scraped meticulously on both sides, but hides used for boat building only need to have the fur and meat removed. Scraping the inside removes the membrane that makes the skins more durable and waterproof. Several of the hides brought from Fort Simpson are now too thin; they will be unusable to build a boat.
Leon Andrews“Right now the biggest challenge is the hide. Moose is not easy to come by.”
Like their ancestors before them, the crew has to get fresh hides the traditional way. They need to hunt. The job falls to Lawrence, who borrows Herb’s gun and takes a boat upstream to try to find a moose.
Dene tradition dictates that no part of the animal goes to waste. Corinne and Beatrice teach the other women how to build a smokehouse to preserve the meat the traditional way. The lean cuts are sliced thinly and hung to dry over the heat and smoke from a spruce fire.
That evening Ricky prepares a Dene delicacy: rotisserie moose head. The head is cleaned and suspended from a strip of leather close to the cooking fire, where it will turn for several hours.
There are pounds and pounds of meat. Whatever is not needed is flown back for the residents of the old folks home in Fort Simpson.
Bad Blood
The setback has cost the crew precious days and they are now behind schedule. Stitching the hides is slow going and anyone who is not busy pitches in. The gruelling work is taking a toll, the hides are tough and getting a needle and sinew through them has left everyone’s hands covered in tiny cuts.
To make matters worse, the hides have started to decompose and some of the crew are starting to exhibit signs of sepsis, or blood poisoning. Within a few days, nine people have become infected and there is serious talk of abandoning the project.
Lory Ann Bertrand“It’s so painful, like the throbbing does not stop and the inflammation – it’s like your hand is literally on fire.”
The guides decide to start the most severe cases on a course of antibiotics and hope that the infection clears up. The gamble pays off and in the end, only two of them will have to fly back to Fort Simpson for medical treatment.
As the last stitches to the hides are made, the steady drizzle of rain lifts and the setting sun casts a soft pink glow on the mountain ranges cradling the river. Overhead the Northern Lights are shimmering.
It’s a tearful Lory Ann that finally finds the words to describe the spectacle: “We’re in between worlds, our world is touching the spirit world. Our ancestors, they see us.”
Day 18
The boat is ready to go into the water.
Fortunately, all the different components that make up the frame are finished, the hides are sewn, and the boat can be assembled.
The building of the boat has taken a lot longer than anticipated, everybody is ready to leave Bunny Bar behind. The Dene break out in cheer as the mooseskin boat glides off its rollers and into the river.
There hasn’t been one like it on the Nahanni in over one hundred years.
Rabbitkettle
Of legends in a site most sacred.
Day 22
The crew break camp. The maiden voyage of the mooseskin boat. Exploring a 10,000 year old tufa mound and sacred Dene site.
It’s the day everyone has been waiting for. Ricky, Leon, Robert and Herb are the first to pilot the boat. It’s a relatively short trip, 13 kilometres downstream to the first camp site. Leon is manning the massive rudder, maneuvering the boat with surprising agility through the fast water. The mooseskin boat is holding up well.
The rest of the crew along with the guides and the support team follow close by, a colourful flotilla of inflatable rafts loaded high with equipment and supplies.
Times have changed and it’s a far cry from the old days when the mooseskin boat would have been on its own.
Rabbitkettle Hot Springs is home to the largest and oldest tufa mounds in Canada. Here, heated water from deep within the Earth’s volcanic crust rises through thick layers of limestone and silt, which it dissolves and carries to the surface. For 10,000 years these minerals have formed a series of intricate terraces of tufa and travertine deposits, rising 30 metres out of the surrounding landscape.
To the Dene, the mound is known as Gahnihthah, a sacred place that must be honoured with offerings of tobacco and matches.
The small turquoise pool at the top of the Northern mound is especially important. It is an oracle, a way of asking the spirits if your journey will be successful. If it is dry, proceeding down the river will be filled with difficulty.
Thankfully, the pool is overflowing today.
The Legend of Yamoria
Dene culture is held in story, and to the elders the land is like a book. For the Dene, places and stories are bound to one another.
Long before radio, television, the internet, sacred locations were the repositories of knowledge and culture. The stories were also a wayfinding system that the Dene used to navigate the landscape, a way to warn them of impending danger and remind them to stay alert to their surroundings.
The most important stories in Dene mythology are of a messenger, sent by the Creator to help bring order to the world. To outsiders he is most commonly known as Yamoria, but each Dene language has a different name for him. The Mountain Dene refer to him as Yamǫ́zha, while the River Dene call him Yampa Deja. Rabbitkettle is his birthplace.
Herb Norwegian"We are at the altar of Yamoria. He is listening to us. He is watching us.”
Yamoria is a hero and protector to the Dene. A powerful medicine man, he uses cunning rather than strength to defeat his enemies, which were often giant animals. Many Yamoria legends involve vanquishing giant beavers, large enough to overturn a hunter’s canoe.
The paleontological record lends some truth to these stories. Giant pre-historic beavers inhabited the area around the time humans first arrived; fossils indicate that the animals would have been the size of a bear with eight-inch fangs. The Dene have lived in these landscapes for thousands of years, long enough to have overlapped with the existence of Giant Beavers.
The River
Contemplating the scale of time.
Day 23-25
The seams are sealed with lard in an effort to keep the boat watertight. As the boat moves downriver, one hide in particular shows signs of thinning.
A light drizzle has resumed and the Dene are soaked but happy. They take turns steering the boat downriver towards the next major stop: Virginia Falls. Over the next three days, they will have time to let the events sink in. Time to remember what brought them here, floating through the mist, flanked by the towering mountains.
Time is something the river understands better than any of them. It was born 550 million years ago, in a shallow tropical sea near the equator. The land was still poisonous and barren, but the sea teemed with tiny marine creatures. Over the millennia a thick layer of their skeletons blanketed its floor, compressing into sheets of lime and sandstone.
As the continents drifted apart and the sea receded, the river found itself far north, tracing a lazy, winding path through swampy lowland in search of the nearest ocean.
Most rivers are birthed by mountains, but this river was content to flow alone, carving its path for hundreds of millions of years, before shifting tectonic plates caused the land to buckle and rise. Daggers of molten volcanic rock from deep within the earth’s core shot up, piercing into the limestone and hardening into giant granite shards. This is how the mountains were born.
It would be another 80 million years before the river would meet the first Dene and learn of its name: Na’ha Deh.
Robert Horassi“We've been on the river long enough, we understand the flow of the river.”
A Bitter History
The first humans arrived here between seven and eight thousand years ago. They were a mobile people, following the herds of moose and caribou on their annual migration. It was a life that required a deep understanding of the rhythms of nature and fostered a culture of community and sharing.
The Dene had survived this way for thousands of years.
All that changed with the arrival of the first Europeans. They had come in search of furs and a trade route to the Pacific. Of the many new things they brought with them, two in particular would change the Dene forever: disease and capitalism.
The Dene had no natural resistance to the epidemics that had swept through Europe over the centuries. Over the next hundred years, three major waves of smallpox and influenza would wipe out thousands. Most of those who survived had little choice but to abandon their mobile lifestyle and settle near European trading posts.
By the mid 1800s the fight for economic control over the northern part of the New World had been won by the the Hudson's Bay Company, who established a network of trading posts to supply Europe with furs.
Indigenous peoples, including the Dene were indispensable to the fur trade in the North. They were the ones who knew how and where to hunt. The Hudson Bay company offered each of its agents a certain number of pounds of dried meat as part of their contract and soon Dene on all the tributaries of the Mackenzie made dried moose meat for trading. The settlers’ idea of money was initially a foreign concept to the hunters, they preferred to trade for tangible goods such as tools, guns, tea and flour.
Disease decimated the people; capitalism would change the culture.
Herb Norwegian“The Dene were a collective people. Money is a capitalist system. Our people had a really hard time with that.”
Big Water Falling
The power of nature.
Day 26
The crew arrive at Virginia Falls. The mooseskin boat flies through the air.
You can hear Virginia Falls long before you see them. A dull rumble that builds to a deafening roar as the boats approach. In the old days, the Dene would have sent their fastest runner up a mountain to scout ahead and warn them of the approaching drop.
As the river narrows, it turns into the churning whitewater of The Sluice before plunging twice the height of Niagara Falls and exploding into a thunderous, boiling mist. The sheer natural power of the spectacle is overwhelming. The Dene call this place Nailicho or “Big Falling Water”.
A hundred years ago portaging the boat around the falls would have taken up to a week. Our crew will wait for a helicopter to sling the boat around the falls, depositing it 5 miles downriver at Marengo Creek. The Dene spend their time exploring…
Watching the churning water, Lisa is overcome with a powerful feeling: “It’s like déjà vu. I’ve never been here before, but it really feels like I have.” Lawrence too is deeply moved. He is sitting at the very edge of the drop as if in a trance.
It’s the kind of emotion Herb has seen before. “When you're standing on top of the falls and looking down, you're nothing but a little spec, a grain of sand. You're afraid, but yet you feel free. The way to deal with something like this is to let yourself go. Don't hold back that feeling. Give yourself to the water, give yourself to the falls, and let the falls take care of you.”
Herb knows the power of this place. It’s something he’s been counting on, part of the healing and forgiveness he hopes this journey will bring.
Residential Schools
There are plenty of reasons to seek healing. All of the Dene here have been affected by the trauma inflicted on their communities. The older ones still remember the residential schools.
Beatrice Kosh“I went to a residential school, for two years. I hated it. I lost so much of my culture, I lost my language.”
With the Indian Act of 1876, the Canadian government took charge of the education of Indigenous youth in Canada. They did this through a system of boarding schools run by Christian missionaries. The idea was that teaching young people modern ways would allow them to integrate into modern society.
In reality, residential schools were a cultural genocide. “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” was the slogan coined by Richard Pratt, the American Army officer who developed the residential school model. It was eerily prophetic.
Children were taken from their homes, often by force, and housed in boarding schools far away from their communities. Many of them would not see their families again for years. The education they received was designed to erase their Indigenous identity, but it was the living conditions that ended up killing actual children. Beatings, malnutrition, forced labour, disease, sexual abuse. It is estimated that by the time the last residential school closed in 1996, over 6000 children had died in the care of state and church.
Marcel Cholo“I get mad... I can’t forgive that, I can accept that happened and move on, but there’s no forgiveness for that.”
Those that survived were left traumatized. Without their language and culture, they no longer felt Indigenous, the promised education had been rudimentary and rampant racism barred them access to modern society.
They were trapped in between worlds.
A Disastrous Discovery
Where best-laid plans fall apart.
Day 26
The boat is airlifted over the falls by helicopter and dropped back into the river. The Dene face an intractable problem.
For Ricky and the Mountain Dene building the boat is a source of great pride. He has spent close to a month passing along his knowledge to the other Dene, inspiring them to learn new skills and embrace old traditions. Up until this point, the trip has been been successful. But the hides have come back to haunt them.
It takes two more days to portage all the equipment and people to the boat at Marengo Creek. During this time, the water has dropped dramatically, leaving the boat high and dry.
But they have an even bigger problem. The hides have started to dry out, stretching the weakest one to the point of tearing. The only way to repair the boat would be to remove the old hides and start over with new ones. On top of that, every minute the boat sits in the sun damages the hides even further. It’s an impossible situation.
Ricky:“I don’t want to talk about the hides no more.”
There is serious talk about ending the journey right now. Burn the boat, cut their losses, move on. No one likes the idea, but there doesn’t seem to be any alternative. They will wait for Herb before deciding how to proceed.
Herb has no idea of the drama playing out at Marengo Creek. He had flown back to Fort Simpson a few days earlier to get his jet boat, which will be needed to transport the equipment downriver. He arrives to find the Dene and support team in despair.
When Herb sees the damage he’s quick to decide. They will try to get the boat to their next stop, Nahanni Butte, where there may be tools and material to fix it. A system of inflatable tubes is rigged and the boat can go back into the water.
It is too dangerous to carry passengers, so for the time being it will have to be towed. No one knows if the boat will survive the rapids that still lay ahead of them, but for now, there's still a glimmer of hope.
Day 30-31
The inflatable tubes work. The damaged boat is towed through a spectacular landscape.
The Canyons
The South Nahanni is a geological marvel.
Most mountain rivers cut straight deep canyons, but the South Nahanni is an antecedent river, its winding path established before the mountains formed. The fast flowing water has cut an enormous ribbon through the limestone, leaving a series of four narrow winding canyons with vertical cliff faces that rise hundreds of meters from the surface of the river. Untouched by glaciation these canyons remain relatively unchanged, looking the same as they did millions of years ago.
Similar to Nailicho Falls, these canyons are a visceral reminder of the power and scale of nature and the insignificance of man.
Out of all the canyons, First Canyon is the most breathtaking. Sheer limestone walls rise straight out of the river to a dizzying 1000 metres above the canyon floor. The walls are a gigantic timeline charting the 500 million year history of the landscape.
Adrift
First Canyon is guarded by Georges Riffle, a series of high, irregular standing waves flanked by jagged rocks. This is the point of the journey everyone has been dreading; towing the boat is too dangerous and there are no portage routes.
There is no other choice. Ricky lets go of the towing line, surrendering the boat to the river.
The boat picks up speed, twirling like a leaf as it shoots through the angry water. Twice it veers towards the jagged rocks, each time an invisible current pulls it back at the very last second.
Rochelle too has been feeling adrift, unmoored. She’s the first in her family to go to university and moving from a small village to a large city has been difficult. She wanted to come on this trip because she was homesick, she missed the land and hearing her own language.
The journey has deeply affected Rochelle in ways she wasn't expecting:
“I’m slowly figuring out who I am and how to deal with things and how to forgive myself for my past. I feel like I’ve been a lot better since I’ve been on this trip, because I feel happy and I haven’t really felt happy in such a long time.“
Herb“It’s very personal for many of us, there’s a lot of pain. I’m just hoping that when we come out of here, that we would all experience forgiveness.”
Rochelle is not alone. Almost everyone on this trip is burdened by experiences they would rather forget. It’s why Herb has decided to name this adventure “River of Forgiveness”. Forgiveness, not for the injustices, but for the Dene themselves.
It’s an incredibly generous approach to reconciliation. But for Herb it’s the only way to move forward.
Resilience
Where the will provides a way.
Day 34
The boat arrives at Nahanni Butte and the crew searches for tools and material to make repairs.
Against all odds, the boat has survived the rapids. Herb, Ricky, Leon and Robert are towing it towards Nahanni Butte. As they leave the mountains, the river seems gentler, surer of itself, winding its way through a meandering series of interwoven channels known as the The Splits. From above the boats look like two tiny dots floating down an enormous braid of hair.
There are no moose hides in Nahanni Butte, no way to repair the boat using traditional ways. It doesn’t matter. Herb isn’t worried: “We’re bush people, we’re never stuck, we’ll make things work.” He understands that the point of this journey isn’t about being authentic. It’s about a crew of Dene, that for the first time in over a hundred years are taking a mooseskin boat from the top of the Nahanni all the way to Fort Simpson. By any means possible.
Rochelle Yendo“The boat just has to float. I really want to paddle it to Fort Simpson. I mean otherwise, what's the point?”
What’s possible in Nahanni Butte involves plastic sheeting, a staple gun and a bit of plywood. It’s exactly what their ancestors would have done if they had access to a building supply store.
The truth is that no one actually wants to return to the olden days. Building the boat was hard, but it was a far cry from the life their ancestors lived. They did it without power tools, satellite phones, powerboats, or antibiotics. A hundred years ago, the Dene travelled the river in order to survive. Today they’re traveling so that their culture might.
The Return
Against the odds, triumph & hope.
Day 36
The Dene paddle into Fort Simpson, the boat becomes a symbol, and the community carry it into the future.
Herb is glued to his phone. For the past several days he’s been inundated with messages of support and questions about the boat. There have been text messages, social media posts and press inquiries. A moment where the old ways and the modern world intersect.
It’s a big day, not just for the Dene crew but for all of Fort Simpson. A steady procession of onlookers make their way down to the edge of the Mackenzie river to wait for their arrival.
Lory Ann Bertrand“Everyone’s going to be different after this. Everyone’s going to walk differently, talk differently, act differently, think differently. ”
Just around a bend in the river, the boat is riding low in the water. Ricky and Corrine on one oar, Rochelle and Lawrence on the other. Marcel is manning the tiller, while Lisa and John are using buckets to bail out water. Herb is sitting in the bow, cradling a drum and grinning from ear to ear.
As the boat comes into view, the crowd erupts and the drummers begin their song.
Epilogue
In the end all that matters is the river.
The river provided so that the Dene could build a boat. The river showed them that in life, the path between two points is never straight, but a series of swirls and eddies to be navigated to the best of one’s ability.
But most of all, the river gave them hope. That they will remember, that they will heal, that they will be forgiven. It reminded them that in the face of nature, all are equally insignificant.
The river is life. It was here long before them, it will be long after.
Mountain Dene Participants
- Leon Andrew
- Ricky Andrew
- Robert Horassi
- Corinne Andrew
- Beatrice Kosh
Dehcho Dene Participants
- Herb Norwegian
- Lisa Williams
- Lory Ann Bertrand
- Rochelle Yendo
- Marcel Cholo
- Lawrence Nayally
- John Sabourin
- Earl Hope
- Steve Vital
River of Forgiveness interactive is a companion piece to a documentary of the same name.
Interactive Experience
- Helios Design Labs
- Interactive Studio
- Alex Wittholz
- Creative Director, Writer, Editor
- Heather Grieve
- Producer, Writer, Editor
- Dan Sundy
- Lead Developer
- Jen Saxena, Mike Mali
- Developers
- Jamie Bennett
- Illustrations
Interactive Financing
- documentary Channel
- Canada Media Fund
- River of Forgiveness Productions Ltd.
Documentary Film
- Geoff Bowie
- Film Director
- Michael Allder
- Geoff Bowie
- Producers
- Gordon Henderson, 90th Parallel Productions
- Geoff Bowie, Elan Productions
- Executive Producers
- Herb Norwegian
- Creative and Story Consultant
- Petra Valier
- Editor
- Kirash Sadigh
- Director of Photography
- Herb Norwegian
- Associate Producer
- Carlos Lopes
- DIGA
- Music
- Herb Norwegian
- Narrator
- Herb Norwegian
- Writer, Additional Narration
- Scott Brunton
- Assistant Camera
- Mike Filippov
- Sound Recordist
- Michael Allder
- Second Unit Director
- Danny Patterson
- Second Camera
- Terry Woolf
- Second Sound Recordist
- Jay Bulckaert
- Pablo Saravanja
- Drone Team
- Scott Burton
- Additional Drone Camera/Motion Time Lapse/3rd Camera
- Caroline Cox
- Assistant Director
- John Bingham
- Photographer
- Rob Norton, Neil Hartling, Colin Smith, Roger Estey, Ken Macdiarmid, Ilya Herb, Ian Odell, Margaret Fahey, Matt Cuccaro, Caleb Roberts, Michaela Klutz
- Guide Team
- Earl Hope, Steve Vital, Raymond Horassi
- Power Boat Escorts
- Mel Sabourin
- Pam Fitzroy
- Production Assistants
- Daniel Pellerin
- Supervising Sound Designer, Re-Recording Mixer
- Jeremy Fong
- Sound Effects Editor, Re-Recording Mixer
- Mario Baptista
- Online Editor
- Kaija Siirala
- Jonas Crawley
- Assistant Editor
- Paul Andrew
- Dene Translation
- Front Row Insurance Brokers
- Production Insurance
- Willa Marcus
- Legal Counsel
- Lawrence Nayally
- Additional Musician
Film Financing
- Canada Council for the Arts
- documentary Channel
- Dehcho First Nations
- Canada Media Fund
- Rogers Documentary Fund
- Rogers Cable Fund
- GNWT Film Commission Rebate Program, Industry, Tourism, & Investment
- Ontario Creates
- Canadian Film & Video Production Tax Credit Program
- Filmoption International
- HotDocs Forum
Special Thanks
- CBC: Bruce Cowley, Jordana Ross, Sue Baker
- Hot Docs Industry Forum
- Parks Canada: Superintendent Jon Tsetso, Dorothy Stearns, Sarah Arnold, Archeologist Donna Lee Deck and all the Staff at Nahanni National Park Reserve, Fort Simpson.
- Consensus Team, Nahanni National Park Reserve
- Fort Simpson Historical Society, Alison de Pelham
- GNWT Film Commissioner, Camilla MacEachern
Additional Thanks
- Chief Gerald Antoine, Fort Simpson Drummers including Angus Ekanali, George Tsetso, Sandra Edda, Greg Nyuli, Mackenzie Rest Inn, The Willows Inn, Janor House, Simpson Air, South Nahanni Airways, Ron Blauel & Nicki Crawley, Raymond Yakelaya, Tas-Tsi Catholique, Chief Frank Andrew, Leon Andrew, Robert Horassi, Ricky Andrew, Corinne Andrew, Beatrice Kosh, David Etchinelle, Mike Etchinelle, Teresa Etchinelle, Chief Peter Marcellais, Elsie Marcellais, Leon Konisenta, Raymond Vital, Steve Vital, Mike Matou, Laura Vital, Earl Hope, Lory Ann Bertrand, Chief Darrell Betsaka, Prince of Wales Heritage Centre, Yellowknife, Black Feather Outfitters, Nahanni Wild Adventures, Nahanni River Adventures
The Dene thank several agencies for their important support.
- The Department of Industry, Investment, and Tourism, Government of the Northwest Territories – Dehcho Region
- Indigenous Languages & Education Secretariat
- Dehcho Languages Revitalization
- NWT Arts Council
- DFN Trust
The Dene participants thank the individuals and businesses who donated to the Moose Skin Boat crowd funding campaign through Indiegogo and the Fort Simpson Historical Society.
Special Appreciation
- John Blachford, Aurora Ford, CIBC, Cooper’s Barging, IMB Master Trust, Power Corporation, Enbridge, Michael Cooper, Nemar Limited, Gordon Henderson, Geoff Bowie, McCay Duff LLB, Margaret Egan, Wendy Grater, Jennifer Cooper, Tom Berger, Peter Bowie, Don Lindsay
- Nancy Watters, Jean Paul Bedard, Gemma Yoo & Stephen Bingham, David Holberton, Alexis Bowie, Howard Fraiberg, Carol Lee Smith, Ginny Stolee, JRV Palmer, Robert Henderson, David Hamber, Patricia Jane Weston.
- Beth Rees, Richard Jozwiak, Alan Thomson, Brett Vansickle, Marilyn Friesen, Lis Wigmore, Paul W. Sheridan, Justine Wilmot, Scott McGovern, Mary England, Hugh Couchman, Chris Pupp, Francoise Dutan, Mark Mortimer, George Cates, John Redpath, Ann MacDiarmid, Peter Salter, Debbie McGee, Wendy McKeen, Petra Valier, Anne Marie Rocher, Margaret McGarry, Kerry Godfrey, Lynn Simpson, Mark Agro, Brian Kingsley, Elizabeth Laidlaw, Bob Hanke, Fran Lloyd, Dane Williams, Andrew Thomson
- Jeff Balderson, J. Moreton, Rob Dowler, Frances Rennie, Martin Pupp, Danièle Caloz, Ted Kramoic, Jake Fell, Paul Krell, Barbara Riley, Mary Reeve, Gary K McLaren, DW Portland, Richard Rogers, Donna Manders, Janice Dawe, Alex Wittholz, Elise Menni, Michelle Bowie, Suzanne Rochford, J. Peeters, Mary Caroline Cox, Heather Grieve, Alex Gillis, Katherine Gilday, Chris Vajcner, Anne Plaxton, Susan & Paul, Lisa Craig, Branimir Ruzic, Fran Spidle, Gerry Kerr, Janice Bignell, Kris Samuelson, Jessica Hannon, Glen Carter, Lorraine Symmes, Adam Blackstock, Teresa Dias, Phillip Sego, Yvonne Pigott, Gail Amundsen, Arthur Milner, Ursula Collie, Aaron Lipson, Kate Humphrys, Sue Fitzgerald, Chanda Chevannes, T.E. Russell
The Central Mackenzie Mountain Dene (Shuhtaot’ine) own the Intellectual Property Rights to the Mooseskin Boat. For all inquiries please contact Chief Frank Andrew, Tulita, NT Canada
- Susanne Cuffe
- Rita Kotzia
- Business Affairs & Production Management, 90th Parallel Productions
- Caroline Cox
- Rita Kotzia
- Associate Producers
© 2025
