Dr. James Raffan

James is a prolific writer, speaker, cultural geographer, and tireless advocate for the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, Ontario. He has produced more than twenty books and written for film, radio, and other media outlets. James is a Fellow International of The Explorers Club, a Past Chair of the Arctic Institute of North America, as well as a Fellow and Past Governor of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. In 2017, James was named by Canadian Geographic as one of Canada’s most notable explorers of all time.

As an inveterate all-season adventurer and experiential educator, James has led expeditions throughout Canada and around the world by snowshoe, dogsled, bicycle, ski, snowmobile, kayak, Peterhead, nuclear-powered icebreaker (to the North Pole), and by canoe—as the instigator of Connected by Canoe, an expedition to demonstrate the canoe as a vessel of reconciliation.  After travelling to Tuktoyaktuk on the Dempster Highway with friends from South Africa this past winter, James headed to Kugluktuk with ArtsCanCircle to do a week of writing and recording music with Joe and Susie Evyagotailak and youth from Kugluktuk High School.

James is an interdisciplinarian and storyteller through and through and knows a little bit about a lot of things. And if he’s not driving a Zodiac, circling the midnight sun, giving presentations at sea or workshops on the land, serving as a bear guard, or stalking the wild Arctic asparagus, he’s likely to be singing his heart out and wailing away on his guitar with any other musicians who happen to be near the bar.