Introduction and Background
Updated May, 2007
The Three Rivers Project won silver at the Canadian Environment Awards. Read more here.
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How does one celebrate and protect an immense boreal mountain river wilderness unknown to most Canadians? That was the challenge taken on by the ambitious Three Rivers Journey project in the summer of 2003. The Yukon Chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) invited 11 nationally prominent artists, writers, journalists, and photographers to join 26 people from the Yukon and Northwest Territories in three separate, simultaneous journeys along the Snake, the Wind, and the Bonnet Plume Rivers. These rivers all flow through the Peel River basin in the stunning Selwyn Mountains along Yukon’s eastern border.
In return, the participants created works of art and literature that responded to this wild and mystic northern landscape, one that still sustains an aboriginal way of life with close ties to the land. The Three Rivers Journey was launched to heighten public awareness of one of the world’s finest wild mountain river systems and the potential threats to its integrity.
Sweeping mountains of the lower Wind River
(Photo by Fritz Mueller)
The Peel River basin is an enormous, unspoiled, globally significant boreal watershed, a wilderness area that is part of our cultural heritage as Canadians. A premier destination for backcountry travel, it is also within the traditional territory of both the Nacho Nyak Dun and Tetlit Gwich'in First Nations, providing a connection to ancestral ways of life. For generations, the plants, fish and wildlife of this region have provided sustenance, while its rivers and valleys have provided travel routes, challenge, and solitude. However, the area is vulnerable to the continental hunger for hydrocarbon energy, including proposed development schemes for oil and gas as well as coal and iron ore deposits. Such development would have an overwhelming impact on the Peel watershed and the health of its major tributaries.
For eighteen exhilarating and arduous days in August 2003, the Three Rivers Journey guests paddled the Snake, Wind and Bonnet Plume Rivers together with First Nation community members and conservationists. The journeys ended with a traditional Gwich'in elders’ feast held on the banks of the Peel River in northern Yukon, after the 37 paddlers arrived to customary gun salutes and a chorus of cheers by members of the Tetlit Gwich'in. More than 100 people participated in the gathering, most of whom had made the eight-hour journey upstream from Fort McPherson. They feasted on fresh moosemeat and grayling, and listened to elders and First Nation members speak eloquently about the importance of the land, wildlife and waters of the Peel watershed. Elaine Alexie, on behalf of Gwich'in youth, said:
“We, the youth of the Tetlit Gwich'in, a generation of tomorrow, are here today to express our profound concern for the well-being of our sacred and ancestral lands within the Peel River watershed and our right to maintain our cultural way of life.”
Later, in return for sharing in the Three Rivers Journey, the participants created art and literary explorations of northern Canada’s primeval origins and cultural heritage. The works were then embodied in a national touring art exhibit as well as a literary and photographic anthology. The sumptuous new book Three Rivers: the Yukon's Great Boreal Wilderness celebrates one of the world’s finest wild mountain river systems and highlights the threats to its integrity. Through visual art, imagery, essays, stories and poems, this book presents conservation essentials to help safeguard this vital wilderness. It poses questions and sets out an alternative vision to the imminent decline of the North’s wild heart.
The Three Rivers Journey was organized by CPAWS-Yukon with the participation of the Tetl'it Gwich'in, the communities of Ft. McPherson (NWT) and Mayo (Yukon), and the support of the Wilderness Tourism Association of Yukon.
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