People of the Watershed: Photographs by John Macfie features more than 100 photographs taken by John Macfie as he worked as a trapline manager in Northern Ontario for the Department of Lands and Forests in the 1950s and 1960s. A settler, Macfie developed deep and lasting relationships with Anishinaabe, Cree and Oji-Cree communities in the region including Attawapiskat, Sandy Lake, and Mattagami as he travelled the vast expanse of the Hudson Bay watershed. Macfie's photographs bear witness to the adaptability and survivance of Indigenous people in a period of dramatic change, and the pleasures of ways of life firmly rooted in the land. Curated by nipisihkopawiyiniw (Willow Cree) curator, writer, journalist, cultural advocate, and commentator Paul Seesequasis, the book centers the lives and resiliency of the Indigenous people represented, many of whom have been identified by Macfie and Seesequasis. The accompanying exhibition is part of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.

Paul Seesequasis is a writer and journalist. He was the founding editor of the award-winning Aboriginal Voices magazine, recipient of a MacLean-Hunter journalist award, a broadcaster and writer. His short stories and feature writings have been published in Canada and abroad. Tobacco Wars is his first novella.

Paul Seesequasis' profile page

John Macfie, born in 1925 on a farm near Dunchurch, Ontario, spent many years in northern Ontario with the Fish and Wildlife Branch of the province's Department of Lands and Forests. During that time, he successfully combined his government work with a more personal interest, photography. Since his retirement, he has studied the history of Parry Sound District, publishing three books and writing a weekly newspaper column.

John Macfie's profile page

Praise for Paul Seesequasis's Blanket Toss Under Midnight Sun :

"A revelatory work of astonishing grace, Blanket Toss Under Midnight Sun encapsulates an invisible generation brought to glorious life. So many times, the subject could have been my auntie, cousin or grandmother. When people ask why I live on the rez, I'll point them to this book, this stunning reclamation of narrative, which so movingly shows the love of place, community and self."
- Eden Robinson

"Paul Seesequasis's Blanket Toss Under Midnight Sun is a wonderful collection of found photographs and recovered histories that link us to a past as old as the land and as precious as breath."
- Thomas King, author of The Inconvenient Indian