(Photo credit: Brendan George Ko/The HISTORY Channel.)
A woman from Cumberland House Cree Nation will be on the next season of Alone.
The show is heading into its 11th season and was filmed in the northernmost location in the show’s history. This season, contestants were dropped into the brutal landscape of Inuvik, within the arctic circle.
Michela Carrière is a tour operator at her business, Aski Holistic Adventures, and takes people on canoe trips, snow show trips, and land based culture camps in the Cumberland House area. She has utilized traditional land-based skills her whole life, with generations of knowledge being passed down and taught by her kokum and mushum.
“Then they taught my dad, Solomon Carrière, how to live off the land, and he carried on that tradition; he’s a world champion paddler as well as a hunting guide. He’s been taking me out on the land since I was a little baby; he’s been showing me how to check fish nets, moose hunting, and goose hunting,” said Carrière.
Carrière’s mom, René Carrière, is a land-based educator and also played a big role in developing Michela’s skills. René homeschooled Michela and her two siblings, frequently taking them out on the land to learn.
Inuvik sits on the bank of the east channel of the Mackenzie River and is the main access point for the Mackenzie Delta where the show was filmed. Carrière said she felt a special connection to the land.
“Where I live is called the Saskatchewan River Delta and I was really excited to find out we were going to the McKenzie River Delta because there’s so many similarities in many ways, so I was excited to showcase what I’ve learnt from my delta and apply that to another delta. Another special connection to that is my kokum’s last name is McKenzie,” explained Carrière.
Carrière said she planned and prepared to be on Alone for a long time and had a strong game plan going onto the show and said viewers may see her use some tactics that have never been seen on Alone.
Each contestant can bring ten special items on their journey to help them survive. Carrière said she brought a duck down sleeping bag, a ferro rod, an axe, a customized Leatherman multitool, paracord, a bow and arrow, a pot, snare wire, a fish net, and a saw.
Carrière said she got advice from winner of season 6, Jordan Jonas before she went on the show and that Jonas made her a custom axe to take with her, similar to the axe he brought on the show called a taiga axe.
There has only ever been one female winner of Alone. Woniya Thibeault came out on top after 73 days on Alone: Frozen which is a spinoff that takes the strongest Alone contestants from previous seasons and drops them to survive just before the start of winter. Before that, Thibeault came in second place behind Jordan Jonas in season 6.
“It would mean the world to me to win because it’s like my whole life leading up to this point, and to achieve that goal would be incredible so I’m really excited that I get this chance and I can’t wait until everybody gets to watch it and see what happens,” said Carrière.
Season 11 of Alone premiers on Thursday at 9p.m. Saskatchewan time, and the show can be watched on the History Channel. A watch party with Carrière will be held in Saskatoon that evening where she will share her Alone prep story and have a show-n-tell.