Gerald McKay
MISIPAWISTIK CREE NATION (GRAND RAPIDS) (1955–2025)
“When our ‘Grand Rapids’ was silenced by the hydro dam, we became the town that lost its name.”
Life was very good for those living in this quiet fishing village of five hundred—up until 1960. “We wintered in Grand Rapids because my dad and many other families trapped at Summerberry Marsh in February,” recollected Gerald McKay. “During summer we stayed at a fishing camp at the south end of Lake Winnipeg, then returned to Grand Rapids. Everybody knew everyone in the community.”
Gerald was five years old when Provincial Highway 6 reached town. Thousands of migrant workers arrived to build the hydro dam, bringing along with them aberrant behaviour and chaos. Many lived in the bush nearby and leeched off the community, unable to find jobs. Gerald recalled it was especially hard for his mother: “Night was really bad. She’d bring in all the laundry because it’d be stolen. The dam was one kilometre away from our home and blasting went on twenty-four hours a day to break up rock. With so much commotion, the babies would start crying. Mom would be up all night long. Her personality changed. I now understand why.”
Lamentably, the situation got worse with time. “One night, somebody cut the window screen and was reaching in to take my baby sister when Mom caught him. He dropped her and took off. After that, mom locked the door and nailed every window shut. She kept one open to let air in while she washed dishes. For two years Mom was so scared, she’d enter each of our rooms and turn on the light for a few seconds. I was told she was counting her kids—that’s how bad it got. Mom never really slept during the four years the dam was being built.”
Throughout this period, Gerald found life at home and at school difficult in the newly hydro-dominated town. The troubled teenager left for residential school in Cranberry Portage at the age of fifteen. “Those were four of the best years of my life. I made lifelong friends and was able to eat regularly. It was a real positive change from Grand Rapids.”
Afterward, Gerald worked, lived out of his car for a period, and earned a college degree before returning home. The fishing industry plummeted after the dam was built and had not recovered by 1987, when Gerald bought his father’s fishing licence, against the elder McKay’s advice. “Dad told me not become a fisherman, but that’s really who I am. I tried office work and it wasn’t for me.”
Throughout the years, Gerald enjoyed cranking up his snowmobile on brisk winter mornings and heading out on frozen Lake Winnipeg. “My dad and his dad were fishermen. It’s a way of life. Whenever I pull my nets, there is always that anticipation of what I caught that day.”
“Life has really changed for us in Grand Rapids since the dam, but we are trying to make the best of it.”
To read the community story in Grand Rapids by his own account, click here.
Thank you to Gerald Kuehl for allowing us to share his artwork and writing to honour Gerald McKay.
