Colonial Canada tried to extinguish many traditional skills and practices of First Nations people. Now, two members of the Haisla Nation want to breathe new life into one of them.
In Kitamaat Village, two men are revitalizing an ancient craft, building what's believed to be the first oceangoing canoe built in the Haisla Nation in 30 years. Elizabeth McSheffrey has more on their labour of love and reclamation.The waters of the Douglas Channel are so still, they form a glistening painting of the mountains above them and the fishing boats moored to docks at the southernmost end of the village.
“I’m there to help keep it alive. I’d like to see us paddle to Bella Bella one day in the gathering of the canoes.”Click to share quote on Twitter: "I'm there to help keep it alive. I'd like to see us paddle to Bella Bella one day in the gathering of the canoes." After years of carving static pieces — totem poles and masks — Robinson decided to follow in his father’s footsteps, obtaining his first canoe log in 2016.
He got his own 64-foot-long canoe log in 2020, and it was delivered to his front yard — unplanned — on his late grandfather’s birthday. Cordeiro says his grandfather was also a canoe-builder, but died before Cordeiro had a chance to learn from him. “I definitely will find someone who will be interested enough to pick up the tools and learn our ways. What Mike has taught me, I’ll pass on one day.”Robinson’s canoe was meant to be for practice, but he says it turned out so well, he plans to paint and carve it in the theme of the sea wolf and killer whale. His canoe’s story is the “survival of the ability to make ocean-going canoes,” he adds.
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