In May of 2022, a collective of songwriters, musicians and spoken word artists paddled the Rideau Canal from Kingston to Ottawa, Ontario. This travelling 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.

Expected release: October 27, 2025