Two Row on the Grand – Celebrating 10 Years! | Lunch & Learn - Brantford Campus

Meet the people at the end of the paddles – Ellie and Jay! They will introduce us to the Two Row on the Grand. How did it start and why on the Hudson? What is it about? I have never been on the Grand River; how can I join? Learn how this 10-day paddle has evolved over the past 9 years, how it has brought together hundreds of people with similar aspirations, and what may be yet to come.

Functioning with a grassroots-volunteer committee, this project’s participation has more than doubled in size since it started in 2014.  Plans are underway for “Two Row on the Grand 2025” tenth anniversary edition! For more information, visit www.tworowonthegrand.com now.

Ellie Joseph
Ellie is of the Mohawk Nation, Turtle Clan, born, raised, and still living on Six Nations of the Grand River Territory along the bank of the Grand River. She retired from a thirty-seven-year tenure as a classroom elementary school teacher in our public school system many years ago, but remains an active volunteer in the education field.

After participating in the sixteen-day Two Row Renewal Campaign whose aim was to honour the Guswenta, or Two Row Wampum, from Albany to Manhattan, New York, on The Hudson River in 2013, she was one of four participants who established what is now known as “Two Row on the Grand.” This ten-day paddle excursion, from Cambridge to Port Maitland, brings our Six Nations Community together with all participants. Cultural teachings are presented along the way, encouraging healthy relationships and connections to Mother Earth.

Jay Bailey
Having thrived teaching French for 35 years and coaching 40 volleyball and basketball teams, Jay has become an authentic voyageur, paddling over 4000 km on the fur trade routes in birch bark canoes, equipped as in 1800. He has staged over 600 voyageur events, live and online, from Van Kleek Hill to Grande Prairie. He is also a published app designer/programmer and curriculum writer. His crowning achievement is a marriage of 45 years to Hope, with three daughters and five grandchildren. Besides his family, he is hoping that the Two Row on the Grand will be an important legacy.