A group of people sit around a pot of boiling water filled with spiral spruce roots outside the Wahkohtowin Development office in Chapleau, Ontario, removing pieces of the soft wood to build a canoe.
The best roots for the job are found beneath the tips of the spruce branches, away from the trunk. They are narrow, flexible and easy to find, says Chuck Commanda, who patiently guides the group in the traditional method passed down from his ancestors.
The plan is to build a canoe out of birch bark, reinforced by the tough and pliable roots of the spruce. The Algonquin style was once common in these Treaty 9 protected areas of northern “Ontario,” but is now practiced by only a few makers like Commanda.
The group includes Wahkohtowin Guardians, who will help build the entire canoe, as well as community members from Chapleau Cree First Nation, Missanabie Cree First Nation and Brunswick House First Nation.
About a dozen people from northern Manitoba are also helping with the construction. They traveled to the area on July 15 – with academics and a representative from Nature United – to spend the week talking about moose, whose populations are declining in these boreal forest areas. Together they form a “moose alliance” and their discussions about conservation continue as they work on the Guardians’ birchbark canoe.
For Chapleau, Missanabie and Brunswick Guardians – a program of the social enterprise Wahkohtowin Development – this is the fourth year they have been building birch bark canoes. Their teacher, Commanda, is one of the few artisans left with the knowledge and skill to build Algonquian-style canoes.
It is a craft that was passed down to him from his grandparents after he skipped classes at his parents’ boarding school and day school.
“I was lucky,” he says. “My grandparents kept this craft alive.”
All the grandchildren were invited to learn canoe building, but it was Chuck who took the initiative – he became his grandparents’ assistant and learned everything he could from them.
Commanda, an Algonquian from Kitigan Zibi in Quebec, said his grandfather encouraged him to build small, four-foot-long model canoes during the winter months. He said he wasn’t sure why at first.
“I learned later that if I made a mistake, I always had the material on hand,” Commanda said. That way, he could make replacement parts while perfecting his craft.
As a young man, Commanda turned away from canoe building, but while recovering from a car accident in 2008, he began basket weaving, a tribute to his grandmother, who was often behind the scenes of her husband’s work.
“I wanted to let the world know that it actually makes up 50 percent of the canoe building business,” he said.
Commanda became so good at weaving baskets that he was invited to the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC, to display the baskets alongside an 8-foot-long canoe he had made on a whim from surplus materials.
“My grandfather heard about it,” says Commanda. In 2011, his grandfather called him and asked him to visit him.
Commanda’s grandfather, William Commanda, co-founded A Circle of All Nations, a “global eco-peace community” that used the medicine wheel model to bring together indigenous and non-indigenous peoples from around the world to pray together for Mother Earth, environmental stewardship, racial harmony, and peacemaking.
Commanda’s grandfather, keeper of three Algonquian wampum belts, Officer of the Order of Canada and holder of two honorary doctorates, explained that the theme of the 2011 global gathering was “watercraft” because all races and cultures, regardless of their origin, have used watercraft at some point in their existence.
His grandfather asked him if he would build him a canoe for the occasion. “I said I would be happy to do that,” said Commanda.
“And as soon as we finished, he came, inspected it, gave me the green light and died not long after,” Commanda said.
“For me, it was like coming full circle. I was no longer the student. Now I am the teacher.”
Building a birch bark canoe involves several steps, Commanda explained.
After the materials are gathered, the spruce roots are stripped and prepared and the bark laid out. A plywood template is made, temporarily installed and weighted down. The sides are raised, ribs and stems are added for strength and speed. Finally, the canoe is held together using the spruce roots and sticky rubber.
Many of the Guardians return each year to learn from Commanda, whose sparkling eyes and generous nature inspire some to dream of making the craft a full-time career.
“I think that would be great,” says Amberlee Quakegesic, who makes baskets, jewelry and now canoes. She wants to build her own four-foot canoe to practice and collect parts, like Commanda learned from his grandparents.
Commanda and his team completed the canoe in eight days. IndigiNews was not present at the launching ceremony, but Commanda says it was “a great success.” He is borrowing the canoe to take on the road for his next build with another First Nations community north of Chapleau before heading back south to his home in Ottawa.
