Matthew Gull was surprised when his partner handed him a stack of business papers.
“I thought it was a joke,” he says. “She’s kind of a jokester!”
After years of talking about Gull’s love of the land, and his desire to share it, Tara Sloss, Gull’s co-owner and fiancée, says it was time to take the final big step.
“Since the beginning of our relationship, Matthew’s always talked about growing up on the land, and his pride in the land up here in Peawanuck, and a childhood dream of his was to one day share it with people,” she says. “So one day I opened Gooseberry Tourism in his name and handed him the papers.”
That’s how Gooseberry Tourism, Hunting and Fishing Guides started.
“I never had the finances or the ambition to do it until I met Tara,” he says. “She said if you want to do it, let’s do it, stop talking about it!”
The pair employ three guides, including Gull, who take their clients out on the land around Peawanuck near Hudson Bay.
All of the guides are bilingual in Cree and English.
“The language barrier was a little intimidating for me because I don’t speak Cree,” says Sloss. “Hearing Cree as a first language in the community, it’s not going to be English and it’s going to be Cree that you hear in the community.”
Travelling to Peawanuck affords their clients a unique look at the biodiversity the Hudson Bay lowlands offer.
“We get to see belugas, seals, usually in August, September,” says Sloss. “The polar bears are starting to spend more time on the mainland now because there’s less ice now, so there’s more and more bears staying on land year-round.”
Sloss says the scenery, the wildlife and the trout fishing are huge draws for them.
They offer several different kinds of experiences, from a prospector’s tent to ‘glamping’ with all the comforts of home, including internet.
“It’s the client’s choice on what experience they want,” says Sloss. “If they want to sleep in a cabin, that’s available, if they want to sleep in a prospector’s tent, that’s available, if they want dome tents beside the Gooseberry brook, that’s available too.”
A few younger folks were more interested in their internet connection.
“Our first clients, we brought them out on the land, the gentleman had brought his grandkids with him and you could tell they were getting withdrawals from the internet,” says Gull with a smile.
Growing up on the land he’s now taking clients out on, Gull says there is a lot of history to share about the area.
“I like to teach people that Peawanuck is a new community, and our original community is called Winisk, that’s where I grew up,” he says, referencing the floods that destroyed the original town and killed two people in 1986. “I like to go back to where I was born and raised and teach the history of it, and how life was back in the day.”
Sloss, who is from Mattagami First Nation, says there was a little bit of culture shock when she moved to Peawanuck.
“I’ve been up here five years, and to be honest, I found a peace up here that I didn’t know was possible,” she says. “I always viewed myself as a city girl, I suffered from really bad insomnia, and then I came up here and I slept for 12 hours a night. I don’t think I’ve slept like that since I was a teenager.”
Having experienced a lot of different ways of life, she says Peawanuck is different.
“The people are so friendly, and so eager to teach and welcome you into their world," says Sloss.
Gooseberry Tourism is only one of the projects the couple has on the go. They worked with the City of Timmins during the flooding evacuations this spring to make sure evacuees had access to cultural and language services.
"There's a lot of work in that," says Gull. "I noticed a lot of gaps in procedures, language barriers, not bringing traditional aspects and that kind of stuff so we partnered up and it's been working very well, and we're getting a lot of good feedback from the communities we've been hosting."
Sloss says that getting sober helped them both reach these goals.
“It’ll be three years in December since we put down our drinks and we haven’t picked them up since,” she says.
The couple met in high school and their friendship slowly grew from there.
“We’ve known each other since Grade 9, and I was his high school crush,” says Sloss. “So 28 years into our friendship we decided to give it a chance, so he’s put a ring on it but he hasn’t married me yet.”
“She made me wait 28 years, she can wait a little longer,” says Gull, laughing along with Sloss.
They’ve been hosting youth from other First Nations for the seasonal goose hunt, and sharing the culture and connection to the land.
“A lot of people up here still live off the land, and it’s a big part of the Weenusk people’s culture,” says Sloss.
The guides have over 100 years of combined experience on the land and their stories can show visitors something they can't get anywhere else.
Gull says he hopes people who visit Peawanuck and the area around it find peace in the place.
“It’s the most relaxed area, and there’s a peacefulness,” he says.
More information about the company, their packages and bookings are available through their website.
