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Guujaaw stripping the bark off the cedar log outsider the carving shed on the beach a few kilometers outside Skidegate, Haida Gwaii. Canoes are central to Haida culture.
Two carvers, (S. Moody and in the background Nelson Cross) hollow out the rough using large metal axes, chisels and adzes. A chainsaw has cut a shallow grid to make it easier to remove the wood from inside the hull. The outside was carved first.
Bill Reid takes up the work. His Parkinson’s disease made his hands shake uncontrollably except when he was applying pressure on a chisel or a paint brush; then the shaking stopped. He was always busy with something, twisting wire in erotic shapes, working a piece of wood, sketching something, or marking up other’s work with his construction pencil.
Bill inspects and uses a small plane to level the gunwales.
I understand Bill when he says, “Happiness is a well-made object.” Out of all the focus and attention to detail, comes a kind of perfection that follows every chisel mark on the canoe, and that is incredibly rewarding for the carvers. It’s what keep carvers carving.
005. Bill Reid carves 50-foot-long Haida war canoe in a carving shed outside Skidigate, Haida Gwaii, B.C. Canada. This is the first Haida canoe of this sized carved in over 100 years. A jig frame holds the canoe to insure the right shape, uniformity, and thickness throughout the hull, inside and out.
There were some tricks to getting the ‘thickness’ uniform. Small holes were drilled at various locations along the hull. Pieces of soft lead soldering wire, cut to the exact lengths corresponding to the thickness required throughout the hull, where inserted flush in the drill holes from the outside. It was a good way to insure that carvers, working inside the hull, knew when to stop removing wood, when they hit the end of the soldier wire. Stacey, Jags, Brown and Bill inspect and measure.
Bill and the carvers in the little lunch room adjacent to the workshop. Carving the Lootas was very much a collective effort - how much effort by whom I will leave to the petty politics of this art world.
There is a ceremony to bless the carved canoe that is ready for steaming, the most critical time in the whole process.
Bert Crosby, along with other community members, carry the canoe out of the shed to the beach where a fire has been heating rocks for a few days
A drummer chants for spirits to let the steam transform the carved log into a true canoe, balanced and stable. The canoe was blessed at every stage of its evolution; an enduring sign of the spiritual and community importance of the canoe. The canoe has always meant much more than transportation to the Haida.
Dancer during the celebrations. In the background spectators include: Sandy Greene, Pat Colerman, Joe Wilson, Louisa Dixon, and Collen Williams.
The carved Lootas going to the beach for steaming.
A temporary ramp is used to wheelbarrow hot rocks from a fire that had been burning for about three days.
New rocks are continually added.
It is very difficult to see, and difficult to predict when it is time to stretch the canoe open.
Bill Reid at the steaming of Lootas at Skidigate, Haida Gwaii.
Carrying the finished Lootas to the water for its launching.
Carrying the finished Lootas to the water for its launching.
Haida elders and dignitaries are given rides in the Lootas. To the Haida canoes are community-making machines just as much as they are art objects with both functional and aesthetic qualities.
Walking along the shores of Haida Gwaii, Bill would say that “ you have to be stupid to not survive here”. He was referring to the wealth of food and resources to be had in the temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest. Bill’s work fanned the flames of inspiration in a whole generation of Haida artists, canoe builders, and paddlers. But mostly Bill brought international eyes to Haida art, culture, and their land claim issues.
Bill’s ashes were transported in the Lootaas to Tanu, a most important historical Haida Gwaii village where his maternal grandmother is buried, and where his ashes lie among the mossy old totems, guarded by Haida Watchmen.
Today the original red cedar canoe rests in the Museum of Man in Paris. The second one is in Ottawa at the Museum of Civilization.
The Lootas has been paddled for thousands of kilometres, including to Alaska and up the Seine River to Paris. Paddling took off, and took with it energetic young men and woman who cared deeply for their culture.