Canadian Waterfowl Festival

Festival concept
The Netley Marsh Waterfowl Foundation Inc., adopted a “Festival” concept as a means to celebrate and to showcase a part of the rich heritage of the Red River Delta. This river delta is more commonly known as the Netley-Libau Marshes.

The Festival, a one-day event is held in Selkirk Manitoba. It draws various conservation organizations both government and non-government together in one venue for the day. It is perhaps the largest gathering of conservation organizations at one time anywhere in Manitoba. This gathering provides a tremendous educational opportunity for any one with an interest in wetland and waterfowl management and conservation and waterfowl hunting. From demonstrations to educational kiosks and events like the Manitoba Duck Calling Competitions for adults and youth, and raffles of waterfowl hunting equipment the Festival showcases all the elements that make waterfowl hunting such a rich part of this area’s cultural heritage.

Proceeds from the Festival are used by the Foundation in many ways. A portion of the proceeds support student scholarships through the Lord Selkirk School Division, projects on the marshes and some are being dedicated to publishing a History Book of the Netley-Libau Marshes.

Some of the events include the following:

Duck Tails: “Poems, Laments and Sad Songs”
This event encourages the poetic side of any one who has something to say in verse or limerick. Not unlike Cowboy Poetry, Duck Tails is meant to provide visitors the opportunity to share their sad stories and experiences about waterfowl hunting, marshes, three legged hunting dogs or just about anything including soggy muskrat and cattail root sandwiches and leaky hip boots. Some are truly sad tails while others, most in fact, are unbelievable.

Duck Calling Clinics and Demonstrations
One of the main events of the Festival is the duck calling clinics by Three-Time “World’s Champion of Champions Duck Callers,” Mr. Buck Gardner of Tennessee. Buck has been supportive of the Festival and conducts duck calling clinics for the youth during the Festival. This has become an extremely popular event and nearly every kid in the place gets down on the floor and learns to call ducks from the best in the entire world or the World Champion of Champions. Nearly every young person who participates is given their own Buck Gardner personally autographed duck call. This in itself is worth the price of admission to the Festival.

Manitoba Youth Duck Calling Championship & Manitoba Duck Calling Championship

Two other popular events at the Festival are the “Manitoba Youth Duck Calling Championship” and the Manitoba Duck Calling Championship. Last year over twenty young people participated in this event.

Decoy Carvers
Historically, local people from Selkirk and Scanterbury relied quite heavily on the marshes to support their families either through trapping and shooting ducks for food. Over the years, many hunters made their own wood decoys to lure the wild fowl into shooting range. At one time there were several carvers in the area. However, this aspect of waterfowl hunting is perhaps stronger today than it was sixty or even eighty years ago. Today, carvers are again making wooden decoys to use in their hunting decoy rigs or as mantle ornaments. Anyone interested in taking-up this historic art form can observe and learn about this art form from professional carvers at the carving demonstration kiosk at the Festival.

Education Kiosks
One of the primary goals of the Netley Marsh Waterfowl Foundation is to create awareness about the marshes, waterfowl hunting and boating and firearm safety. The Festival also provides other waterfowl and wildlife conservation organizations a venue to show case their respective programs like the Manitoba Wildlife Federation, Manitoba Wild Gobblers Association, the Selkirk Junior Rifle, the Manitoba Trappers Association and many others. At the same time there is also the opportunity to learn and discuss current waterfowl management initiatives like enforcement of the Migratory Birds Convention Act, waterfowl population surveys and wetland conservation programs through the Manitoba Habitat Heritage Corporation.

Historic Waterfowling Antiques, Art, and Memorabilia
T he Netley-Libau marshes were a favored location for duck hunters and at one time a place where market hunters shot ducks for sale to the markets in Winnipeg. This is a rich part of the heritage of the area. The Festival showcases this aspect of this heritage through displays of waterfowl hunting artifacts like black and white photographs, duck boats, wooden decoys and other hunting equipment. Most of these items are now considered collectibles. Each year someone walks into the Festival with a bag of old wooden decoys that they would like appraised. There is also a display of wooden duck boats that were made by local people like Robert Tesch, the Hooker family, Peter Kalusniak, and others made for the marsh by Doctor Farnee. These are truly beautiful displays as the boats show a high level of skill and wood working that many local people had developed to suit the water conditions on the river delta.

Canadian Waterfowl Festival Committee

Another aspect of the Festival is the rainbow raffle of waterfowl hunting equipment like decoys, duck blinds, goose chairs, hunting clothes, birdhouses etc. There are many other events and demonstrations at the Festival including retriever hunting dog demonstrations, decoy hurling competition for the youth, and much more.

The 2002 Festival is usually held in September to coincide with the Manitoba Heritage Waterfowl Days. Admission to the Festival is Free. Anyone wanting more information on the 2002 Festival can call Mr. Chris Benson, Festival Chairperson, at 1-204-482-______.