Category: General

Hello everyone

We have some very exciting news to share! As you will read from the Press Release from Mr. Fedeli’s office, the Mattawa Museum is the recipient of an Ontario Trillium Foundation grant. It is always exciting when you receive grants, as nothing is ever guaranteed, but this one, in particular, is such wonderful news.  It is an Accessibility Grant!  Finally, our Museum – all three levels, including washroom facilities will be accessible to everyone!

Nothing could be more appreciated. 

Renovations will take place over the winter months so we will be ready to welcome you when we open our 2024 Season. This will be a special year as we celebrate our 40th anniversary and will open with another brand-new, very special exhibit dedicated to the women of our community – past and present. 

Please follow us on this journey! thank you, meegwetch, merci, marsi

Our talented Mattawa photographer Danny Turcotte (Catch-Light.ca) captured Big Joe in a new way at night with some flashlights and some light painting.

There is no photoshop in this photo. It was done in the dark with his camera on a tri pod taking a long photo and as it takes the photo he used flashlights and sparks spinning in the air which creates this effect. He actually ran around creating the image.

“You can see me standing there spinning the fireworks which gives the photo scale to show how tall Big Joe is as he stands towering above me—-I think he just paddled down the Ottawa…..”

You can even see the 3 crosses in the background!

2022 has been a great year for our museum! We had visitors representing almost all of Canada and 27 countries around the world. We loved chatting with you and can’t wait to welcome more visitors in our 2023 season!

Let’s reflect on our year and take a look at some of the things that happened…

Near the start of the season, we had a new roof and windows installed!

A 20-foot birch-bark canoe, “The Gift” was built on site over the summer by Marcel Labelle and his grandson Alex. We also had an amazing celebration to launch it.

Our wonderful summer team created an escape room (the first of its kind in Mattawa)! We had many groups participate. See our best times in the leaderboard (they had a total of 60 minutes to solve the mystery). Maybe we will make one again next year!

We had a draw for a beautiful quilt handmade by Diane Gallupe. Congratulations to Iwona Mooney for having the lucky ticket!

There were about 400 rocks in our garden of strength and hope last time we counted! Many visitors and members of our community have painted rocks to put in our garden since 2020! We can’t wait to see future creations!

Look at our display from the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Jane Vester and Laurelle Gagnon brought in many beautiful handmade items to showcase their culture and art.

We honored the late Jan Argo at the end of September with the Friendship Force. A cedar tree was planted in front of our museum in memory of her.

Canoe Build Anthony Rota Visit e1672431139893

Canoe Build building e1672431118687

Canoe Build summer team with marcel e1672431092751

Canoe Build Launch

We have been scanning old issues of The Mattawa Recorder and found a Christmas Issue from December 22, 1982. Check out these holiday greetings from many local businesses we found in this 46 page issue! We hope this brings back wonderful memories of past holiday seasons!