Labatte Siblings’ Oral Histories

Métis siblings Michael, Antoine, and Catherine Labatte were not simply passive witnesses to their family’s landing at Thunder Beach in Tiny Township. Together, they became oral historians whose combined memories preserved a foundational chapter of Métis life along Georgian Bay for future generations of their Métis community.

Their accounts, recorded in A.C. Osborne’s 1901 The Migration of Voyageurs from Drummond Island to Penetanguishene, demonstrate how Métis history often survives not through a single voice, but through the layering of many. Each Labatte sibling recounted what others did not. It is through the overlap in their narratives that the fullest picture emerges.

As the eldest sibling, Michael Labatte anchored their collective recollections in geography and significance. His narrative situates the Labatte House as the first in the area and establishes Thunder Beach as an early foothold along the bay around which a community would eventually grow:

“There was no house at Lafontaine when I first saw it. It was first called Ste. Croix. The nearest house was my father’s, at Thunder Bay, about seven miles distant.”

Michael’s brother, Antoine Labatte, carried the vivid memory of the family’s movement and resilience. His detailed account captures the danger of the family’s crossing from Penetanguishene, the chaos of ice and storm, and the cramped conditions of the Labatte family’s first winter as they endured together and built anew:

“We were in a bateau with our goods and provisions, being towed by the steamer Penetanguishene… A heavy storm arose before we reached Christian Island. Our bateau smashed the back windows of the cabin of the little steamer, and one of the lines broke by which we were being towed... We camped there about a week… Antoine Lacourse, a fisherman from Penetanguishene, and some friends, came to take us back to Penetanguishene. We started, but the ice was so thick it took three men with sticks in the front of the bateau to break it. We got as far as Thunder Bay (Tiny), and landed at a fisherman’s cabin, but twelve feet square, where we stayed for the night, with fifteen men, besides eight of our own family. We built a place to winter in, then built a log house, and lived on the bay ever since. The old house is still standing.”

It was their younger sister, Catherine Labatte, who completed the family’s story with a quiet but powerful detail, fixing the family’s arrival in time and seasonal significance, recalling their family’s “Landing at their future home beside Thunder Bay, in Tiny, on a cold Christmas eve.”

Taken together, the Labatte siblings’ memories do more than recount a family’s relocation and rebuilding. They model how Métis families preserved history collectively, relationally, and with care for what must be passed on, thereby preserving their community’s past to inform its future for generations to come.

See Our Sources

• The Migration of Voyageurs from Drummond Island to Penetanguishene in 1828

Mini Word Search

Have fun with the facts by completing today's mini word search.