The Wood House is situated on the sacred traditional land of the Anishnaabeg, specifically Ojibwe/Chippewa people, and where many still live today. This area, once known as The Coldwater-Narrows reserve, has a dark history in genocide, experiments, forced removal, and relocation of Indigenous groups to Christian Island.

You will observe both cruise ships and recreational boats touring the Severn River, but let us consider that before cottage country was developed, the river served as a means of transportation for Indigenous groups for over 15,000 years. Indigenous peoples were crucial to early tourism, serving as guides for hunters and early white travellers before they were systematically erased from land the government wanted to associate with parks and wilderness creation

While you enjoy your stay on this land, we invite you to acknowledge how it is so intimately connected to Indigenous communities and their land rights and losses.

We recognize that we directly benefit from the colonization of Turtle Island and are dedicated to not only learning about the impacts of ongoing colonial violence but to also move forward in the spirit of reconciliation with all First Nations, Métis, and Inuit.