‘ Mystery’ kayak on its way to new home at Nunavut museum
A homecoming more than 50 years in the making began Monday, involving an Inuit kayak, a basement in Edmonton and 76 metres of bubble wrap.
Since the late 1960s, a caribouskin “mystery” kayak has resided in a home across the street from the Royal Alberta Museum.
When Walter and Stella Baydala bought the house in 1975, the kayak, a little over five metres long, came with it. The home’s seller did not want to take it, and the Baydalas did not insist he do so.
Unsure where it came from, or how it might be removed, the Baydalas left the kayak and its paddle in the basement for 40 years. The items rested on the ground, near a pool table.
Recently, thinking about moving, the couple started inquiring if a museum might want the watercraft.
They eventually reached Brendan Griebel, executive director of the Kitikmeot Heritage Society in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, who recognized the artifact as an Inuit kayak.
“I got quite interested and started doing my homework on where it came from,” Griebel said.
He believed the hunting boat, likely built in the 1950s, was moved to the basement in the 1960s. He found the name of the home’s previous owner, Bryce Weir, and was able to locate him “by absolute chance.”
“I was looking for his name on the Internet and my father walked into the room and recognized him as former colleague.”
Griebel talked to Weir and learned that the kayak was once part of a display at a Hudson’s Bay store, until Weir talked the manager into selling it to him.
Griebel travelled to Edmonton Monday to prepare the kayak for its return, via Buffalo Airways, to the Arctic hamlet it most likely came from: Kugluktuk, Nunavut, formerly known as Coppermine.
The kayak, which Griebel says is in “incredible” condition, will become an exhibit at a museum that opened in Kugluktuk last year.
“To bring something like this back in the community is important, not just because it’s an object that’s being returned, but it’s full of knowledge,” Griebel said.
Inuit would have used the kayak for caribou hunting, impaling the swimming animals with lances then pulling them to shore, he said.
Having solved the mystery of where the kayak came from, Griebel turned his attention Monday to getting it out of the basement.
The heritage society director, alongside handyman Gordon Baergen and Margot Brunn, a retired conservator from the Royal Alberta Museum, slowly wrapped the kayak in poly sheeting and red packing tape. Next, it went slowly out a small basement window.
After the artifact was placed in a crate with thick Styrofoam padding — built by Griebel and his father — the final step was wrapping the crate in bubble wrap — and lots of it.
Stella Baydala watched the commotion on Monday morning with a smile.
“It was quite slick. I thought it would be harder ( getting the kayak out of the basement),” she said. “We’re glad that it’s going back home.”