Ashley Strange

Ashley has spent the past 13 years leading canoe expeditions on the Madawaska and Dumoine Rivers with adolescents. Originally trained as a teacher, she was fortunate to be able to combine two of her passions, outdoors and alternative education. Ashley has a deep, long relationship with these rivers, and especially enjoys sharing this with others.

A lover of learning new things and following her heart, she is currently living in Tio’Tia:Ke (Montreal) working with adolescents as a high school counsellor.

Ashley believes that when groups come together on the land, all members of the group offer unique gifts to share with each other which brings magic to the experience. We all have things to learn from each other. She brings a grounding, calm energy to the team. We love her and know you will too!

Rachel Worth-CAppell

Rachel (she/her) is a settler of mixed European ancestry originally from the confluence of Kaskiaskas, Shawnigan and Hopewell territory — more recently known as the Licking River Valley. She began in the outdoor world in 2006 at a whitewater rafting company on the Youghiogheny River and ever since then she has worked with rivers. This love has led her to guide expedition canoe trips all over Canada with variety of folks.

Within the pinegroves and rivers, she witnessed the profound healing power of nature in herself and those she worked with. The privilege of working with amazing humans showed her the profound inequities and shortcomings of our healthcare system and it was here she recognized the need for a wholistic approach to healthcare.

Carrying forward the wisdom of the river, Rachel took up a new adventure in the field naturopathic medicine in 2014 at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine in Toronto, Ontario. She is now a Naturopathic Doctor at Sacred Grove Naturopathic and teaches nutrition and foraging at Pacific Rim College, as well as wilderness medicine courses through Wilderness Medical Associates.

As a woman with the land in her heart, Rachel knew that she couldn't stay away from the river, and so Braiding Rivers was born, for her, at the intersection of health, a deep love of the land, spirituality and equity frameworks. While she has been blessed with so many teachers, both human and otherwise, the land has always been her best teacher, showing the value of reciprocity, accountability, abundance and sisterhood. In listening to the land, Rachel believes we can learn how to serve our communities in a good way.

Keira Loukes

Keira (she/her) learnt how to travel by canoe from women who took her through the lake systems of northern Ontario as a Junior Ranger at age 17. This experience solidified an embodied knowing of the immense nurturing, healing and connecting power of the land, and the strength and support a community of women brings to these spaces. Since then, she has guided and paddled rivers and lakes for schools, guiding companies and friends across Ontario, Manitoba, Quebec and NWT.

While the place she calls home has meandered, she always comes back to the rivers to reconnect and realign with the land and herself. A proud high school teacher of the talented and bright students at Kâpapâmachakwêw (Wandering Spirit) School in Toronto, Keira is currently on leave to pursue a PhD studying Indigenous food sovereignty at the University of Ottawa.

She loves writing and singing songs, catching and eating fish, learning Anishinaabemowin, and drinking too much coffee and getting lost in idea-land. She loves travelling by water and can’t wait to spend August on the Dumoine River with her dear dear friends Ashley and Rachel -- and you.

kumari giles

kumari (they|them) grew up learning to paddle alongside their family and have been supporting other queer and trans people of colour in connecting with land since then - whether it be planting gardens, walking forests or paddling on the water.

They are an artist, facilitator, food maker and consultant who embraces their multitudes. They are based in tkaronto, with roots in many places. A mixed maker of many things they lean into creativity and curiosity towards collective transformation and healing. kumari is interested in engaging people in unique and creative ways through embodied agency, storytelling and food through a healing, trauma informed framework. Whether holding space, participating, sharing or guiding, they aspire to shape processes with trust, access, joy and play.

kumari is slowly unfurling from a period of deep healing alongside playing, foraging and learning about liberation in the forest.

Oona bjerke-clarke

Perpetually active and engaged, personal growth, creating, and community are at the center of Oona.

Oona is Red River Métis with a blend of mixed European settler and Sami ancestry. Being raised outside Indigenous communities, Oona is now actively reclaiming their Indigenous roots. Oona doesn’t speak on behalf of any of these communities and can only speak for themselves. Oona's deep love for the land grew from a childhood immersed in the vastness of the prairies, where being on land and exploring were integral parts of their upbringing. As they embark on guiding work, Oona recognizes they have much to learn.

While this may not be obvious at first, Oona is oral deaf and neurodivergent. They won’t sit with your feelings, but they will walk with you.

Still figuring out their place in the world Oona has been attending Toronto Metropolitan University and working as a youth mentor. Loving to connect with the world through activity they practice capoeira and water polo. Join Oona on an adventure to step outside your comfort zone and push your limits. They'll be by your side every step of the way – and if you want to, ask about their art.

mina etezadi

Mina Etezadi (she/her) is a racialized, cis-gendered, queer settler who grew up in Tiohti`ake/Montreal and now lives in Tkaronto/Toronto. She spends her working days trying to create a more equitable Ontario Public Service as Senior Manager, Centre of Excellence for Human Rights and Employee Experience, Treasury Board Secretariat.

As a child to immigrant parents from Iran, she is on a lifelong journey to connect with, heal and understand the magic in her own lineage while living, working and playing on lands that would have been foreign to her ancestors. She finds it easiest to be her truest self in the woods, by water, on her bicycle and moon gazing. She looks forward to sharing her love of canoeing and is committed to building a sense of community that honours the gifts of the land and waters through reciprocity.

zofia smeja

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.” ~Albert Einstein

Stay tuned to learn more about this special human.

Taylor farquhar