For one week in July every year, as many as 30,000 people transform a 40-acre shoreline in North-Central Alberta into a pilgrims’ city. The believers-some of whom travel to Lac Ste. Anne by foot-wade slowly into the shallows to pray. They come to be healed-physically, spiritually and emotionally. The Cree people traditionally call the sacred body of water Manito Sakahigan or Lake of the Spirit. Even before the arrival of Catholic missionaries to the site in 1843, it was considered a place of great spiritual significance, a “power spot”.

The modern pilgrimage is an event in which Native spiritual traditions of many nations coexist with the Catholic faith. It is a place where many people come seeking harmony-a healing place.

In Healing Waters, documentary photographer Steve Simon tells a powerful story of faith, hope and mystery through the immediacy of his photographs and a text told mostly in the words of those seeking their own understanding of this singular event.