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Project 57 Week 31: Canoe families and canoe journeys

Published August 21, 2024 by Ashley Edwards

A Canoe Family is like a team, made up of “pullers (paddlers), support crew, and oftentimes Elders and family” from a specific First Nation or Tribe (Chinooknation.org). Julian Brave Noisecat explains that “the traditional oceangoing canoe ... is a communal vessel” born from “old-growth cedar” and felled, carved, and “fine-tuned” by the community (Canadian Geographic). The cedar log is meticulously shaped with fire which hollows the core and then “shaped with an adze” utilizing “generations of master carvers’” teachings and knowledge (Canadian Geographic). Canoe families are more than those who paddle for the canoe journey as it takes a whole community and generations of tradition to make the vessel seaworthy. According to Chinook Nation, the traditional canoe journey was revived during near Seattle in 1989 the “100th anniversary of Washington Statehood” as a statement of Indigenous resistance against colonialism (Chinooknation.org).

Canoe paddling journeys can extend over a month and are intertribal events that begin with the furthest nation, such as, the Heiltsuk Nation of Bella Bella, BC, who then travel down the coast stopping at their neighboring nation for the night, to celebrate and express gratitude by singing and dancing for their hosts (Chinooknation.org). Each day, the canoe families paddle forward to the next nation and “ask permission to come ashore to camp and sing and dance for their hosts” and each day of the journey adds more families. The journey to the host destination will often see over 100 canoe families “traveling together” (Chinooknation.org).

The hosting nation welcomes the canoe families “to camp for a week to rest” and visit “with old friends” (Chinooknation.org). As a thank you, the canoe families “sing, dance, and offer gifts” and the host family ends the journey with a potlatch (Chinooknation.org). Aside from celebration, these gatherings provide space for “protocol and cultural sharing” whilst reviving canoe culture (Indiginews). While the canoe journey is a significant event for nations connected along the Northwest Coast, canoe families have also come together to protest the oil and gas industry, such as in the waters by Seattle in protest of Shell Oil in 2015 (Washington State University). Georgina Island’s Vicky Wolske (Chippewas) says that canoe journeys are a means of “exercising our inherent rights to raise awareness about the concerns affecting our waters by being visible and conducting ceremony throughout our territory” (Orillia Matters).