birch bark canoe

Building a birch bark canoe was as an opportunity to re-learn design, from the inside-out.

Made up of life lessons and materials drawn from the local forest, this canoe “the loon” was mended by 20 sets of hands over 8 weeks. We were guided by Marcel Labelle, renowned indigenous canoe builder, who was both our guide and mentor. Marcel guided us through not simply building, but the methods of thinking and the technologies embedded within the birch bark canoe — throughout the process, not a single power-driven tool was used.

birch bark, responsibility, teamwork, craft, reciprocity

Among many things, the canoe is a vessel for northerner’s such as myself to connect to the land and the greater region I grew up in. Tripping on a canoe has given me much time for reflection on the narratives that have defined these places over time—and of course, my role within them.

Forest Metabolism, Process Drawing 36” x 24” (2017)

What a remarkable thing that the birch bark canoe has been born from the woodland forest that I grew up in. It is to that forest that the canoe is designed to return.

Here we have a drawing that is many things: a material identification key, a map of the canoe cycle, and a story of how it all came together (literally, the root stitching represents the three days a week we worked on it, for eight weeks total). The blueprints for the birch bark canoe are not linear; they were handed to us in the form of lessons passed through the oral tradition and story. Notice the key tree species—birch, cedar, spruce—the claw of the bear (bear fat), and the loon feathers (spirit). These are each sprung from the root, which is held to an endless network of matter. It would seem like the world is truly interconnected.