Omamiwinini Wiigwas Chiiman (Algonquin Birch Bark Canoe)
“And by canoeing, then we all share something in common, our love for being on the water, love for being in the outdoors. We all assume that shared responsibility of being stewards of the land."
– Chuck Commanda for the Canadian Canoe Museum
Each year, approximately one million people visit Algonquin Park to experience Ontario’s “crown jewel” provincial park. But many do not know that Algonquin Park is Anishinaabeaki (Anishinaabeg territory), with Park boundaries superimposed on unceded Algonquin territory, and Nipissing, Mississauga, and Chippewa territories, including the Williams and Robinson-Huron treaties. An Algonquin birch bark canoe is helping to bring an awareness and understanding of continued Algonquin presence in what is now known as Algonquin Provincial Park.
Since time immemorial, birch bark canoes have played a fundamental role in the lives of Algonquin people. The canoe enables us to travel extensive distances and connect our communities. However, the continued impacts of colonization have led to an interruption in our relationships with this ancestral craft. We are (re)connecting and (re)learning knowledges and practices, including how to build a birch bark canoe.
Over two weeks in August 2023 in Algonquin Provincial Park, Algonquin community members, along with Indigenous peoples from across Turtle Island along with many non-Indigenous relatives, built a birch bark canoe with the guidance of Chuck Commanda, an Algonquin canoe builder from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, who learned from his grandparents, Mary and William Commanda. This canoe is the first Algonquin canoe built in what is now also known as Algonquin Park in over 50 years, maybe even as long as 120 years ago, since Algonquin Park was formed.
The idea to build this canoe started a decade ago when Chuck was building a canoe with Kijicho Manito Madaouskarini Algonquin community in Bancroft. Chuck and I chatted about how significant it would be to return birch bark canoe building to the upper reaches of Madaoueskarini Algonquin territory, particularly in an effort to help men in our community (re)connect with this ancestral practice.
Years later, in 2018, Algonquin Outfitters, one of the main canoe tripping outfitters in Algonquin Park, approached Waaseyaa Consulting to discuss ways they could strengthen their relationships with Indigenous communities with connections to Algonquin Park.
I love Algonquin Park. I’ve spent almost my entire life within a 20-minute drive of Algonquin’s borders. My favourite job remains my summer as an interior canoe ranger. I consider myself lucky to have paddled so many lakes across Algonquin Park; one year I racked up 16 canoe trips into the interior. I credit my love of paddling for allowing me to visit with so many lakes that my Ancestors would have known – both my Algonquin Ancestors and those who came to know the landscape much, much later when they settled in the Madawaska Valley, beginning in the mid-1800’s. I credit the canoe for gifting me the opportunity to spend time in my ancestral lands and waters.
In 2019, that idea that Chuck and I had years earlier started to come to life – it was time to build a canoe in Algonquin Park. We formed a partnership between Chuck Commanda, Waaseyaa Consulting, and Algonquin Outfitters, supported by Camp Pathfinder, Ontario Parks, and the Friends of Algonquin Park, to build a birch bark canoe in the summer of 2020. But, but along with the rest of the world, we were forced to postpone until such a time that it was safe to hold in-person community events.
A canoe is built in ceremony, and with intention. This canoe was built to both honour and symbolize community, inclusive of all who have a connection to Algonquin Park – both Indigenous community members and those who work in or visit Algonquin Park. From the very beginning of this project, we knew it was crucial that this canoe build be open to anyone who might be interested in participating, whether they are helping to build the canoe or visiting during the build. While this canoe build was primarily for Indigenous people wanting to learn more about building a canoe, it also offered a tangible and visible way for visitors and staff in Algonquin Park to learn about Algonquin history and culture from us directly, all while making connections and strengthening our relationships with each other.
Beginning August 15, 2022, the canoe was built in the upper reaches of the Madawaska River watershed at both Kanishosagiin (“Where both mouths of the river come together”), now also known as Lake of Two Rivers, and Obaowingauk (meaning “sandy narrows”), now also known as Opeongo Lake. For two weeks, from Monday to Friday, Elders, community members, family, friends, and others joined the build, to learn and to visit.
Chuck’s canoes are made from materials he harvests from five trees: cedar for the ribs, sheeting, and gunnels; spruce for the pitch to waterproof and the root for the lashings; birch bark for the body of the canoe; ironwood for the nails; and ash for the thwart. This is a community of trees – a forest represented in a canoe, and an incredible example of Indigenous technology and design that really hasn’t changed – just look at the canoes that we’re more familiar with today.
Though the dream to build a canoe starting over a decade ago, I had only one hope for this canoe build – for at least one member from our community to learn how to build a birch bark canoe. My cousin Dan Bowers, who I affectionally call Danny, is from my grandmother’s generation. He is an Elder in our community and one of the people that I have been able to count on throughout my life to guide me in good ways. Dan worked alongside Chuck each day of the canoe build, usually bringing two bologna sandwiches for lunch, learning the how and why of building a canoe. With guidance from Chuck, he is planning to build his first birch bark canoe in our community.
“It was an honour working with our Mother, the Earth, and all she has to offer our People. The canoe build was a very spiritual journey, and very meaningful. I can’t wait to see where our destination lays and how we will keep this knowledge alive in our communities. Megwetch Chuck and Christine.”
- Dan Bowers, Madaoueskarini Algonquin Elder
For ten days, we bent, cut, formed, and guided these tree materials to take the form of the canoe. At the start of the second week, the build was moved to the shore of Opeongo Lake at AO’s Opeongo Store, where it would be launched after securing the ribs and gunnels in place and waterproofing the canoe.
The “official” canoe launch was held on the Friday of the second week at Opeongo. But, during the first few days of the canoe build, my dad asked Chuck if it would be possible for members of our community to first launch the canoe at Source Lake, at the headwaters of the Madawaska River.
On the Thursday evening, a small convoy of Indigenous peoples – Algonquin, Nipissing, Haudenosaunee, and a friend from the Paolo Indian Tribe in present-day California, along with our relatives and friends – made our way from Opeongo Lake to Source Lake. I drove with my dad, the canoe carefully tied down on flatbed trailer. I was wondering what the people we met on the highway were thinking when they saw this canoe being pulled through the Park. After all, it’s not often you see a birch bark canoe anywhere but on display. This was an expression of Algonquin and Indigenous sovereignty and community within our homelands.
We launched the canoe in ceremony at the headwaters of the Madawaska River. My father and I were the first to paddle the canoe, me in the stern guiding my dad out to the open part of the lake, using paddles made in my community over 40 years earlier. This was the first time they also touched the water. This is a moment with my father that I will hold close in my heart for all of my days.
A birch bark canoe paddles like a leaf on the water. It is sturdier than most canoes, though you have to kneel; the canoe stands out of the water a little more and your knees sure do hurt after a paddle. It is a very special feeling to paddle a canoe that you helped to build. Perhaps because this canoe was built with so much love it feels as though it is holding you, sort of like a protective Auntie, as you make your way across the water. I am forever grateful to my friend Chuck for building this canoe for our community.
The “official” launch was held on a Friday morning at Opeongo Lake with over 140 people in attendance. Chi-miigwetch to everyone who was there for the launch, and to all who visited this canoe over the two weeks. Chuck and Joanne, Chuck’s friend and helper, had the first paddle that day, launching on a small sandy patch at the start of the canoe docks. For the next few hours, anyone wanting to get out on the water was able to take it for a paddle.
Rivers are our original “highways” – the ways that we travelled through our territory and into neighbouring territories, our relationships with each other spanning across all of Turtle Island, evidenced by our extensive trade networks. Madaoueskarini Omàmìwininì (Algonquin) are named after the Madawaska River.[1] Early in the build, Chuck asked Camp Pathfinder to give this canoe a name, and Pathfinder chose the name “Madawaska” to honour the local Madaoueskarini Algonquin community and the Madawaska rivershed, particularly Source Lake where Camp Pathfinder is located.
One morning during the second week, Chuck shared with us that at the end of a canoe build you sort of go into a mini depression. You’ve spent two weeks working closely with a core group of people to build a canoe. And then, just like that, it’s built. And then we all go home. And that’s what we did and that’s what happened. But it sticks with you, because for two weeks we helped to build a really cool community of people. Chi-miigwetch to all Elders, community members and relatives who came to visit and to those who helped to build the canoe each day. Thank you to all who were able to visit, and to learn. I encourage you to keep seeking knowledge and learning about the deeper histories of the land that you’re on, and of the lands you visit. Whose territory are you on? And what are your responsibilities?
As of April 2024, you can visit the Madawaska canoe at the Algonquin Park Visitor Center (km 43 of Highway 60).
[1]According to a 1919 letter from A. Burwash to Robert Douglas of the Geographical Names Board of Canada, the name ‘Madawaska’ is derived from the Anishinaabemowin word ‘mata-aushka,’ meaning “river with a rippling current at its mouth.”
