The Great Canadian Mini Cardboard Canoe Challenge is being featured at National Canoe Day events across the country. Download one of the three boats featured below, cut it out, colour it and tape it together. Once you have made your boat have fun with your friends racing each other. Each model is based on an historic boat in the Canadian Canoe Museum collection. Find out more about each boat by clicking the links below.
|
|
This style of canoe is Nuu chah nulth from the area of Fort Rupert, Vancouver Island, B.C. It is of Kwakwaka’wakw origin and of a style used by many cultures along the West Coast. The hull is hewn from red cedar with the bow and stern attached as separate pieces. These pieces would often outlast the canoes. Sometimes, as in this case, they were taken from older canoes that were no longer serviceable and used on the newly built craft.
|
|
|
This Ojibway, 'long-nose' style canoe clearly displays how the canoe got its name.
|
|
|
The Canadian Canoe Museum’s Sanikiluarmiut kayak originates from the Belcher Islands, which are located at the southern end of Hudson Bay. While Inuit People typically live in coastal areas north of the tree line, and did not have access to a ready supply of wood for creating such sophisticated watercraft, rivers and ocean currents were a providential source of building supplies to make the framework for these little boats. Inside this particular kayak is a piece of painted and stenciled plywood that has been worked into the (otherwise) traditionally built framework. Likely recycled from a supply ship’s shipping crate, this salvaged piece of wood also reminds us that the ancient challenge of building wooden watercraft where trees are scarce causes resourcefulness in the modern era, as it always has. The wooden structure of a kayak often outlasted its original sealskin covering and might receive several new skins over its lifespan as a working craft.
|
| 
| 
