César's Bark Canoe

César's Bark Canoe

This documentary shows how a canoe is built the old way. César Newashish, a 67-year-old Atikamekw of the Manawan Reserve north of Montreal, uses only birchbark, cedar splints, spruce roots and gum. Building a canoe solely from the materials that the forest provides may become a lost art, even among the Native peoples whose traditional craft it is. The film is without commentary but text frames appear on the screen in Cree, French and English.

Bernard Gosselin
1971 | 57 min

https://www.nfb.ca/film/cesars_bark_canoe/