Amelia Gull is traveling all over the country this summer.
Between the Junior Canadian Ranger (JCR) camps, preparing for high school and taking part in the North American Indigenous Games in Halifax, the 14-year-old has traveled all over eastern Canada. She shows no signs of slowing down.
A member of the Weenusk First Nation, she focuses on the sport of rifle shooting and competitions.
Matthew Gull says his daughter has always been someone who saw what she wanted and got it.
“She’s an ambitious girl,” he says
Visiting the camp gave her the opportunity to try new things.
“I went to a camp called Camp Lejeune for JCRs and did rifle shooting there,” she said. “We do rifle shooting, archery, first aid, canoeing and much more.”
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These camp experiences are part of a family tradition.
Matthew Gull is a Patrol Officer for the Canadian Rangers in Peawanuck.
“All my kids have gone through the Junior Canadian Rangers program and won shooting competitions with the JCRs,” he says.
He has tried encouraging his daughter to enter writing contests and other activities, but her response has been clear.
“She said, ‘My passion isn’t writing, it’s shooting,'” he says.
Her trip to Halifax is far from the only long trip from home she’ll be making this year.
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“I was offered the opportunity to compete with the JCRs in the Northwest Territories,” she says. “I don’t have the data yet.”
Peawanuck is a Cree community in the lowlands of the Hudson Bay. It is the second northernmost municipality in Ontario.
Gull has spent her life traveling back and forth between Timmins and the remote community where her father still resides.
When she was in second grade, she moved to town from Peawanuck with her mother. This year she will start high school in Timmins.
“The longer I lived with my mother, the more I got used to it,” she says. “The big change was being in the city.”
After a summer of competing and learning, she’s taking a break on a school trip down south.
Her favorite part of the trip so far is Canada’s Wonderland.
Gull says she looks forward to continuing to start high school and competing in more competitions in the future.
“Gamer. Introvert. Problem solver. Creator. Thinker. Lifelong food evangelist. Alcohol advocate.”