Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Innu Canoe Making Videos

The Innu Aitun website has some fantastic videos of traditional Innu canoe construction. The videos are a combination of French and Innu languages, but have english subtitles. I've embedded them here but if you can't see them because of missing plug-ins, they are available on this page regarding the canoe in Innu culture(Quicktime needed to view).

The most interesting one for me was part 2 where the men use a PVC coated canvas instead of birchbark as the skin of the boat - a very practical solution given growing scarcity of quality bark. Also, check out the last video which details the method of lashing paddles for the portage. It is exactly as described in Paul Provencher's book about the Montagnais method - with an angular position of the blades and the grips crossed onto the forward thwart.

Jean-Baptiste Bellefleur measuring a tree with his arms


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Materials and Preparation
9:18 min



Two men adjust the outer shell of a traditional canoe


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Assembly
10:24 min.




Launching of a traditional canoe on a lake


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Specificity, Trial
1:24 min



4 comments:

Wildpaddler said...

Thanks for posting these films, they are fantastic!

Mark

Brian said...

Great craftsmen at work, thanks for sharing them :)

Mike said...

Thanks for posting....very interesting especially in use of modern materials....

karel said...

Thanks enjoyed the videos very much

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