Hundreds of people and a few jumping salmon witnessed the launch on Saturday of Tluuwee Kwiiyaas: the Beloved Canoe.
Carved from a single red cedar and steamed the traditional way, the Haida oceangoing canoe is a monumental 51 feet long. It took about that many people to hoist and carry it down from the Tluu Xaayda Naay carving shed to the shore of Masset Sound.
After rounding the longhouse, everyone paused to add precious cargo — kids were invited to sit in the canoe while it was still riding a sea of strong arms.
At the water’s edge, people sang songs and prayers in Xaad Kil, and blessed the canoe and its carvers with cedar boughs.
Then with whoops and cheers, 19 paddlers climbed in for a maiden voyage on the calm, fast water.
Master carver Kihlguulans, Christian White, said the canoe is a legacy of his late father Morris White, former Chief Iidansuu.
White joined him for weeks at a time to carve their first ocean canoe, finished in 1987. White said his father always inviting others to join him at Tluu Xaayda Naay, and it’s the same today.
A group of Haida youth worked full-time on the canoe with apprentice and master carvers over the last two summers. They took breaks from the canoe (and some heavy-duty adzing) to learn formline and block painting, visit other carvers, strip cedar bark, and handle Haida artefacts.
The program was the first of its kind for Tluu Xaayda Naay and Haida Child and Family Services.
A critical time for the canoe was the day its straight-sided hull needed to be steamed into shape.
The crew laid cedar and hemlock boughs inside, filled the canoe with water, then cycled through the shed with shovels of fire-heated rocks to boil it.
White said it took seven hours for the canoe to flex. They let it cool overnight, and morning came sunny and quiet.
“The smell of cedar boughs and hemlock boughs and the cedar wood was awesome,” he said.
Speaking a before the launch and the potlatch that followed in Old Massett on Saturday, White said he hopes to paddle the Tluuwee Kwiiyaas south, maybe far south. Next year’s annual Canoe Journey will be hosted by the Elwha Klallam on the Olympic Peninsula.
“It’s a different feeling, being on a canoe,” he said.
“You’re so close to the water.”
Carvers who worked on the Beloved Canoe include Kihlyahda, Ku gii dlagaangs, Yaahl Swansang, Taanggat ‘leegas, Sii Kaadiiyaas, Caleb Russ, Yaahl Daajee, T’áaw Jáad K’adangáa, Gid Xaaylaa, Yaahl Kuuyaas Jaadas, Jaad Gaadaawaas, Nang Káajuu Ayaa, Xuuts Staasil Kyuuwaas, Brian White-Vanderhoop, Stlaanee Jaadas, Gudangee Tlaats’gaa, Skil Jaday Jaadaas, Ta K’udlan Jaadaas, Kwiaa Jaad Jaahlii and Douglas White.
