Page 41 - Georgina Island

The boat is a central feature in the economic life of
our community, and as our community has grown, our
travel needs have changed.

In 1999, after a lot of hard negotiating by our leadership, WORDS TO KNOW
Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (today called Aazhaawe: to go across
Indigenous Services Canada) provided funds for a car ferry we
had designed for our needs. This ferry is called Aazhaawe, which
means “to go across.” As of 2018, members of the community
are charged $10 per vehicle for a return trip on the ferry. Non-
members pay $40 return.

Life in our community centres around the fact that we are on
an island! Whatever we need to do, we must plan ahead for. For
students in Grade 6, going to school means being picked up at
home by a bus, which boards the ferry to cross the lake. After
crossing the lake, the students get off that bus and board a new
bus to drive to school in Pefferlaw. In the late fall or early spring
when the ice is not frozen solid, they get off the bus on the
island and board a scoot that takes them to their mainland bus.

We depend on the ferry, scoot, or ice conditions to go into town
to shop, visit the doctor, or even to have our hair cut. Those of
us without a vehicle or who do not drive may catch a bus on the
mainland at the ferry landing. This is our way of life and we don’t
think about it any more than a person living on the mainland
would think about getting somewhere only by car.

Georgina Island First Nation 39

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