Restoration Holds More Significance Than Buying Something New

The community of Fort Severn has come together to restore twenty freight canoes that need refurbishing.

John Hupfield, Pam Wedd, and Bruce Smith — three experts on canoes who are passionate about restoration — brought necessary supplies to the northern reserve and set up a workshop to facilitate the project. They were joined by canoe builder and educator Ian Devenney of Tangled Tree Industries. Ian also documented the project photographically. The group chose to put time, money, and effort into restoring the canoes rather than buying new aluminum canoes, which shows their commitment to honoring their history and heritage.

Fort Severn is the most northerly community in Ontario and served as one of the earliest English fur trading posts built by the Hudson’s Bay. The 18–50 year old boats currently being restored are modeled after those from the 1600s. Over the years, the necessary skills to refurbish and restore the boats have been lost as the generation who possessed the skills passed away. The younger people in the community did not have the skills that their elders had, and this project gives them the opportunity to develop those skills and use them in further employment. The project was conceptualized in early 2011; the teachers and apprentices have finished four boats so far and hope to have finished restoring all of them by the end of the summer.

Wood felt the need to help the people of Fort Severn and committed to the project last summer. Her work paid off in the fall of last year and she implemented the project that same winter. She and the team she built started working on the first twelve canoes when she arrived; she has since left but will return to the community in June to continue working. Hupfield and Wood could have helped the community attain aluminum boats, but they saw more of a need for restoration of what were already good wooden freight boats. They involved the whole community — from school children to elders — and gave twenty-somethings a chance to learn skills they would not have otherwise had.

Online Extras

• Watch a clip from CBC's The National about the restoration project
• View a photo gallery of the project from the Fort Severn First Nation website