About the workshop
In the summer of 2012, I had the privilege of leading a birchbark canoe building workshop at the
Woodstock First Nation. E. Tappan Adney's book
The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America got me started on birchbark canoes, and Adney got started on them at Woodstock. In 1889 Adney built a canoe alongside Peter Jo, Maliseet, whose canoe he drew for an article in Harper's Young People magazine, 1890. That canoe, and Adney's friendship with Peter Joe, and with the people of the Woodstock First Nation, were commemorated by the 19-foot birchbark canoe we built in 2012. In a project organized by Darrell Paul, son of the late Peter Paul (who was one of Adney's closest friends), a group of community members and friends got together in a longhouse on the banks of the Wolastoq, and produced a thing of beauty.
