Happy National Aboriginal Day
This is Mary Quaw...or “Old Mary” / “Six-Mile Mary” as she was also known, and she lived to be 108 years old. She was a Carrier of the Lheidli T'enneh – “the people from where the two rivers flow together”.
She was a well-known trapper and trader in the Fort George [now Prince George] area. Mary rented out her dugout at Six-Mile Lake to fishermen. The price was 50 cents and a 15 cent packet of smoking tobacco. If you forgot the tobacco and only had cash she would not rent the dugout. She would always take the tobacco first, fill her pipe and take a few puffs before accepting the 50 cents cash.
The elders say that she was ‘hard’ – not hard-hearted but tough. While canoeing the Six Mile (Tabor) Lake area, Mary would stop in to visit homesteads and communities along the way, giving spiritual care and companionship.
Indigenous people had a HUGE role in the spread of the Gospel and the establishment of mission churches province-wide. Many of the “out-station” mission churches were built by indigenous people and led by local indigenous lay leaders and clergy.
Photo: Provincial Synod Archives - CM-42