Kate Weekes

In May of 2022, a collective of songwriters, musicians and spoken word artists paddled the Rideau Canal from Kingston to Ottawa, Ontario. This traveling musical residency was spear-headed by Kate Weekes, a wilderness canoe guide and award-winning songwriter.  The journey offered an opportunity for settler artists to explore questions of personal and cultural identity and sense of place through songwriting. This includes learning about the colonial impact of the canal in the unceded traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat. 

The culmination of travel by through the Rideau and Katarokwi watersheds is a body of original work written by Kate Weekes and featured on her new album,Rideau Roots. The project is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and will be celebrated in communities along the Rideau. 

Joining Kate at her Nov. 9^th Ottawa release at Red Bird Live are fellow paddlers Moonfruits and Christophe Elie. 

Chuck Commanda will share the stage to share an Algonquin perspective on canoes and the water.