Amelia Gull is crisscrossing the country this summer.
Between Junior Canadian Ranger (JCR) camps, preparing to start high school and competing at the North American Indigenous Games in Halifax, the 14-year-old has travelled all over eastern Canada. She shows no signs of slowing down.
A member of Weenusk First Nation, she is focused on the sport of rifle shooting and competitions.
Matthew Gull says his daughter has always been one to see what she wants and go get it.
“She’s a go-getter kind of girl,” he says
Going to camp gave her the opportunity to try new things.
“I went to a camp called Camp Loon for JCRs and I did rifle shooting there,” she said. “We do rifle shooting, archery, first aid, canoeing, lots of stuff.”
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Those camp experiences are part of a family tradition.
Matthew Gull is a patrol sergeant with the Canadian Rangers in Peawanuck.
“All my kids went through the Junior Canadian Rangers program, and won shooting competitions with the JCRs,” he says.
He’s tried to encourage his daughter to enter writing competitions and other activities but her answer was clear.
“She said, ‘Writing isn’t my passion, shooting is’,” he says.
Her trip to Halifax is far from the only long trip from home she will be making this year.
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“I’ve been offered to go to a competition in the Northwest Territories with the JCRs,” she says. “I don’t have the dates yet.”
Peawanuck is a Cree community located in the Hudson Bay lowlands. It is the second most northern community in Ontario.
Gull has spent her life travelling between Timmins and the remote community, where her father still lives.
When she was in Grade 2, she moved to the city from Peawanuck with her mom. This year, she's starting high school in Timmins.
“The longer I lived with my mom, I got used to it,” she says. “The big change was being in the city.”
After a summer of competition and learning, she is taking a break on a school trip down south right now.
Her favourite part of the trip so far is Canada's Wonderland.
Gull says she’s excited to continue to start high school and take part in more competitions going forward.
