For Amanda and Arthur (Art) Trudeau, every day is an adventure. Both come to their roles running ATV tours in Ontario at Mukwa Adventures with unique backgrounds: she’s a certified outdoor wilderness guide and motivational speaker with a background in organizing women’s retreats, workshops, and events; he’s a born hunter-gatherer who studied natural resource management and conservation. Both have long been interested in nature-based adventure tourism, both have always been outdoorspeople. Together, they have five young children (yes, five) and—as if that all wasn’t enough—they just opened a business together, Mukwa Adventures.
The Perfect Fit
For the Trudeaus, the business is a long-time dream come true. For Art, who worked on the project for a couple of years before its recent launch, it was a natural (pun intended) progression. With Mukwa, he’s able to combine his professional background working in the environmental sector, and his personal history coming from a First Nations background. Bringing these things together in a way that promotes a love of the outdoors and genuine fun is all he could have hoped for.
Amanda says that in the lead-up, all they could really do was work hard and plan for the best. Very recently, all the pieces finally came together when they received funding through Waubetek Business Development Corp. and Sagamok—that financial support was what they needed to move ahead, and Mukwa was officially able to open on April 30, 2017.