After we moved to Sayward, an associate of mine was starting a new magazine, which was going to be an Aboriginal-based magazine. It was called the Compass Magazine. She called me out of the blue to ask if I was willing to write a story for the inaugural edition. I thought to myself, why not? So I agreed and then asked her what the deadline was, and she replied that it was tomorrow. I told her she should have called me sooner, but I wrote it that night and got it off to her the next day. She then asked if I would write for the mag, and she would give me a column and let me name it. I agreed. Off the beaten path was created. Little did I know that this was the start of a multi-year adventure in writing/publishing.
At first, Kealy had an editor working for her who would edit our stories. This was fine until he would take it upon himself to rewrite my stories. When I would see them in the mag, they were sometimes completely different, and this was quite disappointing. I made a condition of my continued work that my stories could only be edited for grammar and spelling, and the story must stay in my own words. They agreed, and I stayed on. Over the first year, a few of the other writers left, and after each, Kealy would ask me to pick up their columns. Soon, I was writing 8 columns.
Then our distributor quit. I took over distribution and helped in a limited way with sales of advertising space. At this time, we were covering from the north island down to Courtenay. I would personally deliver the mags to all the hotels and motels, gas stations, restaurants, lodges, and anywhere else I could get them into.
I extended our coverage as far as Parksville in the south and Port Alberni to the west. I made many friends along the way. I am a people person and enjoyed chatting with all. They always had a smile for me as I made deliveries. Smiles are much appreciated and would make me feel welcome.
A few years in, I started to see a pamphlet detailing North Island Trails. I thought it was a great little book. Then they wrote my publisher demanding that the magazine stop using the name of my column. According to them, they had originally published the guide way back in 2016 and claimed it as theirs. After letting them know that we have used the name in every issue since 2015, and produced a copy of the first magazine in 2015 with the column in it. I never heard any more from them.
Kealy at the time, was also working for the North Island Metis and would always ask me to work with them. One of my favourite things I would be involved with is working with children. They would set up a huge tipi where I would sit and tell stories to classrooms of kids. I enjoyed this, and watching children laugh with my stories was awesome.
She would also hire me to do various types of forest walks with both the elders and the youth. I would teach about the ecology of the forest and how it all works together. I would sometimes take groups out who wanted to learn about plants and mushrooms, or perhaps about natural medicines. My wife, Georgina, always joined me, and she would help the elders navigate the trails and share her knowledge as well. It was always a fun time; sometimes the groups would get pretty big. My wife was also the photographer for these outings.
Around this time, Kealy took on the job of creating a First Nations-based radio station and asked me if I would consider taking on the publisher’s position for the magazine. I took on the role, and over the next few years, I learned a lot about the publishing world. I was flying by the seat of my pants, but all in all, things went well. It was quite the adventure.
