Aven McKay recently arrived in Edmonton from her hometown of Banff for her first year of university, after paddling nearly 500 kilometres along the North Saskatchewan River.
Starting just outside Banff National Park, near Saskatchewan River Crossing, McKay spent 12 days in a canoe. Her dad joined her for the first half of the trip, including a technical stretch through class three rapids and across Abraham Lake. She continued on her own, eventually reaching Dawson Park after about 483 kilometres. McKay had a practical reason for choosing an unconventional way to arrive at the University of Alberta. “I was really nervous about starting the next chapter of my life, moving out and meeting my new roommates,” she says. “So I decided if I spent almost two weeks in the bush, mostly by myself, it’d be a little less scary.” The journey was also made possible in part by receiving a Belcourt Brosseau Métis Award (BBMA). McKay says the award helped ease the cost of tuition and gave her flexibility to take time off her summer job for the canoe trip. Fittingly, she found out she had received a BBMA while paddling the Milk River, checking her email in the canoe. “I was so thrilled,” she remembers. McKay has been canoeing since she was young, in a canoe her parents got as a wedding present. “The river’s kind of like my home,” she says. “It always feels so nice to be back out on the river and on the land.” The trip to Edmonton brought challenges, including thunderstorms, high winds and heat exhaustion. On one particularly treacherous section, the river was braided and filled with log jams. Navigating it, says McKay, was one of the hardest things she’s ever done in a canoe. When she finally passed the University of Alberta from the water, she says the moment felt surreal.
McKay is enrolled in the Transition Year Program for Indigenous students and plans to pursue a combined degree in Native Studies and environmental science. She hopes to bring an Indigenous lens to environmental work.
Growing up in Banff, McKay says she had little access to that Indigenous perspective. A trip last winter helped change that. Through the Askîy Youth Ice Fishing Program, she connected with Métis harvesters, elders and other youth, while learning to set nets and use an ice jigger, a Métis invention. Now in Edmonton, McKay is looking forward to learning Cree at university and becoming more involved in the Métis community.
And after 483 kilometres on the North Saskatchewan River, she is ready for whatever comes in this next chapter of her life. “Looking back, I think it really proved that if any challenge comes my way, I can handle it,” she says. “I can really achieve anything.”
