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The Whetungs are family. I’m telling you this because the only reason we haven’t featured this amazing place before on Kiku Corner is that we’ve been visiting the Whetung Ojibwa Centre since we were babies, and we’ve overlooked it as part of the beautiful Canadiana that we love to feature on the blog. Our childhood visits to The Shop, as we call it, were characterized by meals with family, the smell of leather and sweetgrass, and learning to fish down at the lake.
The Whetung Ojibwa Centre is located on Curve Lake Indian Reserve about two hours northeast of Toronto. The Centre includes an art gallery featuring original Native paintings and sculptures, a wall of moccasins, a jewelry island, as well as a mix of Native crafts and gifts. In the early 1960s, when unemployment on the reserve was very high, the Whetungs encouraged their fellow band members to produce crafts including canoes, pipes, birch bark and sweet-grass baskets, feather headdresses, dolls and moccasins. Eleanor Whetung, aka Granny, her five children, and women from the reserve and their children were the core of the cottage industry in the Whetung living room that eventually included hundreds of band members. Today the main building displays handicrafts from all parts of Canada, as well as those still produced within the community.
The intricate porcupine quill boxes are perfect for storing any of your precious items, but also double as beautiful works of art. The leather and fur moccasins come in many styles and colours – everyone in our family has at least one pair we use as warm houseslippers during the winter months.
Looking onto the peaceful Buckhorn Lake. Later that evening we saw a family of loons!
Visit Whetung Ojibwa Centre: Curve Lake Indian Reserve, Ontario, K0L 1R0
Fascinating store, I did want to buy many things there, but what could I do with check-in luggage max of 22kg ??
Great place in beautiful surroundings, lakes & forests. Still wearing my moccasines I bought in 2007 !
Every time I visit I love to see the new artists showcased at Whetungs. The best selection of moccasins available anywhere.
[…] Donatello, and I had heard about this great antique place near Peterborough, on our way home from Whetung Ojibwa Centre. Except that when we tried to visit Craftworks, we went to the wrong place. Well, it was still […]