The Alexander Mackenzie Voyageur Route: A Community Perspective on Waterways and the Development of a Trans-Canada Heritage Route
Rivers and the AMVR as Heritage in Canada

Preface

In springtime I was born, and each Spring I am born again ~ or at least that is when I come to life. My story starts in Spring.

Cold, dark, long winter nights are the time for sleep. But, then one day the sun stays in the sky a little longer and rises a little higher ~ its warmth bringing a wet glisten to the snow and ice countryside. I am awakened by the warm touch of a south wind, and with a crack, a sigh a release... winter's sleep is broken and a pulse of life trickles through my snowy banks.

It is right that I awaken each year this way. I am born of ice and snow settled in cool mountain valleys or lying silent in dark woods. I am fed by the new rains of Spring and clear fountains which well from the earth. In partnership with the sky I bring life to the land ~ and the land gives me form and character.

It is Spring and I am alive and moving. I am filled with life, old and new. In my mind I carry the memory of the past, of pools and stones and channels long since abandoned. In my arms I carry earth, bound for settlement at a distant spot of calm.

On my back I carry the greatest weight of all ~ the weight of humanity.

It is all a matter of perspective ~ life, history and rivers. So, in considering concepts of heritage, culture and the value we place on things, it is important to remember that to each consideration we bring our own bias, and reality is no more than what we can accept on faith alone. Science and art, as disciplines, bring tools to understand ourselves and the world around us better, but both science and art are limited by human understanding and the ability or willingness to accept 'other' views of the world. Bertrand Russel, a noted mathematician, writer and philosopher, questions the scope of knowledge and our acceptance of science.

In considering the reasons for believing in any empirical statement, we cannot escape from perception with all its personal limitations. How far the information which we obtain from this tainted source can be purified in the filter of scientific method and emerge resplendently godlike in its impartiality, is a difficult question. (1948, p. 8).

One approach to 'justifying' rivers and the Alexander Mackenzie Voyageur Route as significant aspects of heritage would be to elaborate on the historical record and scientific 'value' of the 'resource', but somehow such a justification would fall short in approximating the importance and depth of the topic. "What about the river?", posed a participant at the Canadian Heritage Rivers Conference, in discussion on the future of rivers in Canada. What about the river? Will our actions take into account those things which don't seem to affect us, or does the need to justify actions in terms of outcomes limit the ability to preserve for preservation's sake ~ or understand for the sake of knowledge? Perhaps, by accepting that there are no 'right' answers, it is possible to improve (or perhaps re-discover) a personal relationship with rivers and move forward to improve this relationship with open eyes and minds.

In considering rivers and Canadian heritage, then, it is important not to cast aside all that has come to us through 'the filter' of science and historical study, but to approach an understanding of heritage with caution. Rivers are many things, and represent the best and worst of all that there is, and all that we are. Rivers are life, story and resource. Rivers indeed carry the weight of humanity, but through understanding and cooperation it is possible to lighten the load. Chief Seattle, in an 1852 response to the U.S. government which wanted to buy his Nation's land, perhaps said it best.

The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors... Each ghostly reflection in the clear waters of the lake tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water's murmur is the voice of my father's father. The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. So you must give to the rivers the kindness you would give my brother (Erasmus, G. in Hummel, 1989, p. 92).

The purpose of the following discussion is to explore the river as a facet of Canadian heritage, with such exploration providing a clearer view of history as it relates to rivers and the Alexander Mackenzie Voyageur Route. By contemplating rivers and the Alexander Mackenzie Voyageur Route within natural and cultural contexts, it is possible to consider the future stewardship of the Route as a significant heritage resource.