Congratulations to Samantha Sergiades, the K - Grade 8
Runner-up Winner of the 2021 Farley Mowat Writing Contest

The Birch-Bark Canoe
In Manitoba’s north under the blue sky, under the crispy autumn trees, lies a canoe. A birch-bark canoe.
Inside you see a paddle, right when you are about to touch it the wind goes through your hair and behind you, as you see beyond the trees are tepees surrounded by people, The First Nations!
For the next month I watched them. I saw ways they lived not like any other people today. They used nature fairly. They took what they needed instead of what they wanted. But also gave a little back. 
I never thought about the canoe I saw. It fled my mind, but the next day it changed that completely without me knowing. 
That next day felt different; I saw the Cree people were heading to a far point of Northern Manitoba, where it felt like the seasons changed in one whole second. The branches of trees were bare with snowflakes dancing all around them and the sky was like a crystal chandelier, with the snowflakes falling from mid air. And right in front of me was, again, that birch-bark canoe. I wondered deeply into my mind to find an answer to why it was there and then I turned around and saw the Cree people taking it into the distance up ahead. Following were more and more Cree carrying supplies, clothes and five more birch-bark canoes.
The night became dark and the Northern Lights appeared like the colours of fireworks, but these lights were not made by men, but nature. So, I followed them back to their home where I first saw them. 
Usually, the fire in the middle of the camp would be out so everyone would be sleeping, but instead it was lit and every Cree I saw was building, making things. The women made clothes till dawn, the kids built pots and pans out of trees and the men made more birch-bark canoes.
So then on I made sure to see where this would all be going. The next day I followed them to the north of Nueltin Lake. Then again, I saw they were putting all the clothes and supplies into the birch-bark canoes. And ahead I saw a beautiful lake that was shining like ice and the flow of the water was just like a snake. It was whispering and slithering across, and the sound got dimmer and dimmer as the flow of the lake moved on. The Cree stopped right at it, put the canoes into the lake with themselves in it, too, and I saw they were paddling across the lake and the view of them got smaller and smaller. 
So then on I decided to get myself a canoe and paddle through the lake. At the end of the lake was a whole new village, but I could see that earlier they had a forest fire, so part of it was burnt and the people were a whole new group of First Nation. The Chippewayan all had different clothes on. The Cree that were visiting were giving and sharing to the kids to help make up what was lost. But I wondered why the kids? It was because they were the next generation. And instead of them just focusing on themselves and today, I saw them giving to those who would be the future. 
So, the birch-bark canoes were a bridge to the Chippewayan village to give what they needed and to build a friendship.