People of the Watershed

The current McMichael exhibition and accompanying book

Now on at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario until Novemeber 17, People of the Watershed is the first exhibition of the photography of John Macfie, a Canadian of Scottish heritage, who was a trapline manager in northern Ontario in the 1950s and 60s. He travelled the expanse of the Hudson Bay Watershed, from Sandy Lake to Moose Factory to Sioux Lookout; a territory as large as France.

In an era before snowmobiles and winter roads, much of that travel was by canoe in the summer, bush planes or dog teams in the winter and John Macfie was there; always accompanied by two cameras, a Zeiss Contax for 35mm colour slides and a Rolleicord for black and white photographs. Macfie’s keen eye and curious nature were key ingredients in his photographic journals as he framed the various Cree, Anishinaabe and Anisininew communities of the region. His photography bears witness to the resilience of adaptability of the people he photographed during a time of tremendous changes.

📷 Photos by John Macfie | © Macfie Family Estate

Top: Watching distant forest fires at Red Lake, Kenora District, 1956

Middle: Members of the Fort Hope Band (now Eabametoong) watch the float plane arrive at Lansdowne House (now Neskantaga First Nation), 1956

Bottom: Treaty Party arriving by train in Pagwa River, Cochrane District, 1951