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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
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4 comments:

  1. WildpaddlerApril 27, 2011 at 1:55 AM

    Thanks for posting these films, they are fantastic!

    Mark

    ReplyDelete
  2. BrianApril 28, 2011 at 4:47 PM

    Great craftsmen at work, thanks for sharing them :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. MikeApril 29, 2011 at 7:30 AM

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

    ReplyDelete
  4. karelDecember 31, 2011 at 12:19 PM

    Thanks enjoyed the videos very much

    ReplyDelete