Game on! Explore western Newfoundland through its moose tacos, caribou loin and pulled-bear sandwiches | Canada Voices

At the Buoy & Arrow in Rocky Harbour, N.L., there are two menus. One has items you’d find at most of the restaurants at stops along Newfoundland and Labrador’s Route 430 up to Gros Morne National Park. Let’s call them the safe choices: burgers, chicken fingers, wings.

They’re the kind of options that provide comfort during a day on the road, but not exactly indicative of Newfoundland’s west coast, where the land dates back 1.25 billion years and humans have been living for thousands of years. Gros Morne – with mountains and fjords, waterfalls and towering cliffs – is one of the country’s most iconic destinations. And a road trip to see the park is a reward in and of itself, but I had heard that a number of Indigenous eateries had recently opened in the region, and so plotted my drive to eat well.

Buoy & Arrow’s co-owner Jason Cullihall shows me a menu with far more interesting options. Moose meat and root vegetable soup, pulled black bear sandwich, snowshoe hare stew – all dishes informed by his Mi’kmaw heritage.

Newfoundland and Labrador is the only province that allows restaurants to sell wild game. Some chefs buy game from hunters. Cullihall, who owns the restaurant with his wife, Holly, hunts himself. Both have a hunting permit to maximize the seasons. The pulled bear sandwich, he tells me, is popular: “It’s hard to keep it on the menu sometimes, it’s in such demand.” The sandwich is hearty; the meat has a sweet finish to it, and it’s accompanied by a refreshing salad garnished with colourful edible flowers.

Cullihall is just one of several Mi’kmaq Newfoundlanders who are reclaiming and sharing their Indigenous heritage through food. His grandmother, who’s 90, did not want to talk about her indigeneity, he says. “When my grandfather died last year, she was going to throw away a bunch of papers and records about our Mi’kmaq family.” He managed to persuade her to let him keep them.

Trina Reid has a similar story. I join her for a picnic by the water up the coast in Baker’s Brook. Today, there’s a small parking lot for hikers to pull into to walk the Coastal Trail, but it was once where Reid’s grandparents lived before the government relocated her family to Rocky Harbour. In 2017, she launched tour company Under the Stump with her husband to reconnect with the Mi’kmaw traditions her family had stopped talking about, offering visitors tours of the national park from an Indigenous perspective.

We walk the shoreline as she points out plants that have medicinal properties and the frames for making the wooden dories essential to coastal life in the province. Her picnic is generous – along with salmon and mussels, I have moose stew, the kind of comforting dish called for on an overcast day.

After a couple days exploring the park, cruising the fjord in Western Brook Pond, and being blown away – figuratively and almost literally by the strong winds – walking the Earth’s mantle at the Tablelands, I drive south into the quiet community of Cormack, just outside of Deer Lake, for some cultural history with a side of caribou.

Lauralee and Mark Ledrew founded their six-acre homestead, Upper Humber Settlement, in 2015. I pull into their driveway and a robust garden sprawls out before me – lettuces, beans, berries among the bounty. On a foraging tour, Lauralee shares stories about their regenerative farming methods. I pick and prune greens that will form a salad to accompany seared caribou loin she cooks for me.

As I dig into the savoury red meat, she tells me about her Mi’kmaw roots and how the community in Cormack developed thanks to Second World War veterans, including her husband’s great-grandfather. Each story shared is another puzzle piece set in the region’s history – a weaving of traditional Indigenous knowledge with coastal Newfoundland life.

I arrive in Corner Brook to a spectacular day of sunshine, which means it’s time to get on the water. On the other side of the Humber Arm, the body of water the city runs alongside, is Cox’s Cove. I meet Darren Park, another Newfoundlander with Mi’kmaw heritage, who runs fishing and wildlife photograph outfitter, Four Seasons Tours. We hop into his boat on water so calm it looks like glass to hook some cod.

We come up empty, but I get to taste some anyway after we dock at his small cabin on the Bay of Islands, and he cooks some cod bites and scallops previously caught.

Later, I head back on the water with Indigenous-owned Everoutdoor Adventures. I join co-owner Rob Thomas, who is Mi’kmaw, along with a chef and an elder on a boat journey to Woods Island, where we hike before snacking on moose tacos. They share community history – how islands were populated and then those people displaced, how the pulp and paper industry dictated livelihoods and residences.

Their stories, like the ones I heard before them, reveal the intertwined histories and cultures of Mi’kmaq and Newfoundlanders. Hunting, fishing, finding a symbiosis with the land. As the sun sets, we zip back to the city, an unusually warm breeze wrapping around me like a hug.

I wish I could stay longer. Route 450, a coastal highway that runs from Corner Brook to the fishing community of Lark Harbour, offers, I’m told, incredible views of the Bay of Islands. But all roads – at least the one I’m on – lead back to the airport. I manage one final stop for one final decadent meal at Pollen Nation, a bee farm and restaurant.

Amanda Oake, who owns the farm with her husband, chef Nathan Hornidge, gives a brief tour of the bee farm before we sit for a honey tasting and an indulgent lunch created by Hornidge – blueberry scones with butter and honey, an elegant take on a boil-up with fish, lobster and mushrooms in a broth.

Among the hives and in their restaurant, stewardship is their guiding principle, and she tells me that the Indigenous teachings of her Mi’kmaw heritage emphasize caring for and making decisions that consider the next seven generations – the same care I tasted on every stop of this journey.

If you go

Roads in western Newfoundland must skirt around fjords, lakes and other natural features, leading to longer drives. Check business hours ahead of time to ensure you’ll arrive during operating hours. Highway 430 is the only route up to Gros Morne and construction may slow the drive, so factor that into the itinerary. Take advantage of the park’s visitor centre for a rest stop and information about hikes and other excursions.

Ocean View Hotel offers accommodations facing the water in Rocky Harbour. The hotel has two restaurants as well as a bar with live music May through September.

Hew & Draw Hotel in Corner Brook is a boutique hotel with an on-site restaurant and Boomstick Brewing Co. adjoining the property.

Special to The Globe and Mail

The writer was a guest of Go Western Newfoundland, which did not review or approve this article. Stories are based on merit; The Globe does not guarantee coverage.