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Native people have used birch bark canoes to glide elegantly down rivers and lakes for thousands of years and they’ve passed along the craft of making these canoes from generation to generation. But in modern times this knowledge is slowly disappearing as a lack of material, fading interest, new technologies and new ways of thinking encroach on the old way of life.
This exhibition honours the birch bark canoe builders of the Golden Lake community. It shows the story of the largest birch bark canoe ever built, now permanently on display at the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa, and describes the canoe’s one and only voyage in September 1957. It also examines the lives of the people involved in the building of it and offers a reproduction of the vessel, built by Matthew Bernard of Golden Lake.
In the 1950s, Bernard and his son Mike were renowned for their expertise. But other legendary canoe builders from the Golden Lake community also get their due.
In the 1960s, Dan Sarazin and his son Stanley were the pride of the community and to this day Stanley, his wife Jacqueline and sons Greg and Tom are highly respected canoe builders. In the 1970s and 1980s, Stanley’s nephew Dave Sarazin and Percy Commanda made their names in the field.
Ideally, this exhibition will inspire young people of the community to learn the traditional ways of canoe building so that they may pass the craft on to their children, preserving it for generations to come.
