Kayaks built at Museum of Nature the old-fashioned way — by hand
In a day when factories turn out kayaks made of plastic or fibreglass, Eric McNair-Landry is reviving the old art of making them by hand.
Like the Inuit of past centuries, he fits the wooden frame together with dowels or binds joints with thin twine. No nails allowed — the traditional kayak builders didn’t have any.
And instead of a shell of plastic or fibreglass, he’s using a nylon fabric covering, the closest he could get to the feel of an old sealskin craft without killing several dozen seals.
This is a vanishing art. McNairLandry, born and raised in Iqaluit, wants to keep it alive. He is now building sea kayaks in the Canadian Museum of Nature as visitors watch, helped with volunteers at times.
“They’d better float. They’d better be nice and stable,” he said. That is because these boats are going to carry some of the 120 students on this summer’s Students On Ice expedition, which introduces southern Canadian youth to Arctic peoples and ecology. The students will be on a ship, but they will make frequent stops at harbours along the way and learn about kayaking. But why build your own boat? “You build them custom to your own body, so it reflects a design that is built for you,” he said. The width is right, as is the distance to the foot pegs.
“The balance is perfect on the inside, too.”
And while there are variations in design, he is following one used on Baffin Island that can angle across a headwind without being blown off course. It’s an advantage in windy Arctic waters.
“These are really efficient boats to paddle.”
He’s not Inuit himself, “but I lived in Iqaluit for 25 years and I picked up the skills there. We’ve got some Inuit youth coming in (to the museum), playing around with boats, learning how to build them. That’s the idea: to ignite a revival of kayaking, to get Inuit youth back into this.”
While modern materials have many advantages, “I still think it’s important to know where some of these traditions come from. There’s a lot of pride that goes into it.”
For young people today, “their grandparents were the people who invented that sport. I think that is a really important connection for people to make.”
He is hoping that arts grants or sponsorship by museums will provide incentive for Inuit elders to build kayaks again.
The project is called Q is for Qajaq, reflecting an alternate spelling. It is sponsored by the Museum of Nature, Students on Ice and the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough.