On the shores of the Rupert River 18 kilometres from Waskaganish sits one of Eeyou Istchee’s best kept secrets. Hesterville is a family-run fishing camp on the Hester trapline.
“We’re not a fishery, but we never hesitated to share our fish with people,” said Charles J. Hester, who manages the camp.
The camp is renowned for its traditional cuisine during the annual cisco fish run. Cisco spawning season lasts from August through September, drawing visitors for the “Hesterville Experience”, which includes smoked fish and fresh caviar.
“When we make caviar, it’s gone in 10 minutes,” Hester said. “You have to be here when it’s cooked or you’re going to miss it. It’s something we love doing and it brings the whole family together.”
Established in 2016 by his father, Hester runs the camp with his siblings, who all have cabins on-site. At the height of spawning season, the camp will catch between 100 and 200 fish per day. They set a self-imposed limit of 1,000 fish per season, but will go over that limit if there are requests from the town for more fish.
“We do it because we like providing traditional meals for people who can’t go fishing themselves like Elders or people from out of town,” Hester noted.
Over the years the camp has welcomed and fed guests from every Cree community including Moose Factory and Moosonee.
The camp has been featured on an Indigenous cooking show aired by Télé-Québec. Eeyou Istchee Tourism approached Hester on the possibility of marketing the camp as a legitimate tourist destination.
Marketing may not be the camp’s problem as word has spread, and people come from all over for Hesterville fish. The only promotional activities done for the camp are occasional social media posts and Hester recently had the camp added to Google Maps.
Now visitors come from everywhere, including from the south, the Algonquin, Naskapi and Innu Nations.
Waskaganish has a fishery funded by the Niskamoon Corporation, providing five fish per person to community members. But when they run out of fish people are often referred to Hesterville.
Waskaganish Chief Greta Whiskeychan Cheechoo commends the Hester family for the popular initiative while promoting Cree traditions that have been passed down through generations.
“They support and preserve the Cree way of life,” Chechoo said. “The Hesterville fishery plays a vital role in safeguarding Cree knowledge and traditions, ensuring they continue to thrive for future generations.”
Archeological surveys of the area show it has been used as a traditional fishing site for almost 4,000 years. Hester refers to them as sacred sites.
Education is a big part of the experience. Hester says all the kids in the family help out, in effect training the next generation of fishers.
Not only Cree culture is on display at the camp. Hester says they have “cultural exchanges” with visitors from other backgrounds coming to sample Cree culture and share some of their own.
“We have an Iranian teacher in the community and apparently, they have a fish in Iran that is very similar to the cisco. They asked us for some fish because they wanted to prepare it their traditional way,” Hester recalled.
The teacher and his family cooked their fish and brought it to the camp for all to sample.
“I found it very good, but it was a bit spicy for my liking,” Hester said, sharing a similar exchange with some workers from Sri Lanka.
“They said the same thing that they have a similar fish, and they asked for a few uncut, fresh fish so they could prepare their traditional meal, and they sent us a sample. It was good but again it was spicy. I guess they use lots of spices over there,” Hester said.
The Hesterville camp not only serves up smoked cisco and caviar, but they also offer boiled and fried fish, including pike and sturgeon.
The Hester family doesn’t charge for their services, but with the ever-growing demand they are considering incorporating the camp into a commercial fishery or a tourist destination.
Hester said they have had guests stay overnight or for the weekend and local entities often request use of the site for company outings.
The business idea is still in the discussion stage within the family, but Hester said there is a possibility of a pilot program for next season. If the family does decide to open the camp for tourism, they will make that announcement by spring.