By Robert Wolfe
Jackie and I were in Haida Gwai last week. Conventional wisdom now seems to be that Bill Reid’s “Lootas”, commissioned for the 1986 World’s Fair, was the first large Haida canoe carved in the 20th Century. But we visited Christian White’s carving shed, where they are proud of the canoes they have carved, and the one they are slowly working on—photo below. They think that their father Morris was one of the first—he seems to have also carved a canoe in the 1980s. So Christian’s brother Todd, who gave us a tour of the shed, got a puzzled look on his face when I said that I had paddled in one in the early 1970s—and that it was difficult for people accustomed to a woodlands canoe. It became clear people in Masset seem to have forgotten that they carved a Haida canoe in the 1960s. Kirk was one of the first to support a revival of Haida culture.
From the Canadian Canoe Museum website: 1977.1.1
The Haida dug-out, 22’ 10”, was commissioned in 1967 by Kirk Wipper, director of Camp Kandalore. It was built by Victor Adams at Masset, on Haida Gwaii, from a single cedar log. No such canoe had been built within living memory, and Adams was mentored by Adam Bell, an elder. Construction took three years and was completed in 1971, along with paddles and a bailer. The canoe, painted black, was decorated by Adams and his daughter, Alice Montjoy, with a white eagle, to symbolize ownership by a chief, the head of the eagle at the bow, the broad tail-feathers at the stern. When Kirk Wipper arrived to accept the canoe and took it out for a trial paddle, he mistook the stern for the bow, and he and his paddlers had to turn around in their seats. The canoe arrived at Ontario Place in Toronto in 1972, and after a ceremonial welcome it was paddled through the Trent-Canal system to Camp Kandalore by a group of campers. The building of this canoe marked the revival of the Haida tradition of canoe-building. To quote Victor Adams, “it was a hard job, but I liked the result”. His son and grandson are now building traditional Haida canoes.
The Haida dug-out, 22’ 10”, was commissioned in 1967 by Kirk Wipper, director of Camp Kandalore. It was built by Victor Adams at Masset, on Haida Gwaii, from a single cedar log. No such canoe had been built within living memory, and Adams was mentored by Adam Bell, an elder. Construction took three years and was completed in 1971, along with paddles and a bailer. The canoe, painted black, was decorated by Adams and his daughter, Alice Montjoy, with a white eagle, to symbolize ownership by a chief, the head of the eagle at the bow, the broad tail-feathers at the stern. When Kirk Wipper arrived to accept the canoe and took it out for a trial paddle, he mistook the stern for the bow, and he and his paddlers had to turn around in their seats. The canoe arrived at Ontario Place in Toronto in 1972, and after a ceremonial welcome it was paddled through the Trent-Canal system to Camp Kandalore by a group of campers. The building of this canoe marked the revival of the Haida tradition of canoe-building. To quote Victor Adams, “it was a hard job, but I liked the result”. His son and grandson are now building traditional Haida canoes.
No comments:
Post a Comment