Historic canoe headed for water after restoration
John Zeitoun is proud to tune up a craft built in 1926 by famed Algonquin elder William Commanda. GEMMA KARSTENS-SMITH reports.
An antique birch bark canoe originally built by a legendary Algonquin leader is getting a new life, thanks to a Wakefield woodworker.
Originally built in 1926, the canoe is being restored to its former glory by John Zeitoun, owner of River Woodworks.
“I was really quite eager to see a canoe built by William Commanda,” says Zeitoun.
A master builder of birch bark canoes, Commanda was also a famed Algonquin spiritual leader and former chief of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation, near Maniwaki. Commanda travelled the globe speaking about the need for peace and environmental stewardship before his death in 2011.
Zeitoun suspects the canoe he’s working to restore is either one of the leader’s first works, or one that he helped another builder create, since Commanda was just 13 years old in 1926.
The 4.2-metre canoe, built mainly from one piece of bark, belongs to Ailsa Gladish. Her grandfather bought each of his daughters a canoe, and this one belonged to Gladish’s mother. The canoes got a lot of use, says Gladish, who remembers seeing them on her family’s beach and paddling in them when she was a child.
Gladish’s mother gave her instructions on what to do with the boat before she died. “She asked us just to put it under the cottage on trestles,” Gladish explains. “So I guess it was under there for about 10 years.”
Not that others didn’t have plans for the beautiful vessel. Her husband wanted to hang it from the ceiling for all to see. “And I didn’t want that,” Gladish says. “I said, ‘ Oh, it’ll be buggy and the bats will get into it.’ Maybe it would be a talking piece in the living room, but I didn’t think we needed that.”
So the canoe stayed under the cottage until Gladish decided to see if she could find someone to repair it. Her grandson, Cory Gladish, found Zeitoun.
The canoe is in great shape for its age, says Zeitoun, who has been building birch bark canoes since 1991. But it needs some reconditioning.
Over the years, the pitch — used to patch holes and seams in the lightweight, tough bark — has cracked, and some of the hand-worked cedar ribs have broken.
The canoe has become somewhat misshapen.
Zeitoun has also had to deconstruct some previous restoration efforts, such as removing varnish and duct tape, which seems to have been used to seal cracks.
“The bark was secondary to the duct tape in some places,” he says.
In places where the varnish has already been lifted, the canoe’s birch bark is reddish and shows the knots and indents of the original tree. The canoe is also pockmarked with black stripes from the duct tape. The cedar innards of the boat are darkened with varnish and decades of use.
Using traditional materials for the restoration — such as spruce or cedar root to sew the canoe’s seams — is important to Zeitoun. But he’ll make an exception for the pitch, using a nearly “maintenance-free” polyurethane roofing compound instead of the traditional mixture of tree resin, animal fat and charcoal.
Voyageurs used to work on their canoes every day, Zeitoun explains, redoing the pitch to make sure it didn’t run in warm weather, or expand and crack the bark in the cold.
The restoration is a big job, but one that Zeitoun finds “quite spiritual.” While working, he thinks about the canoe’s early days, and revels in making something that’s nearly 90 years old new again.
“By the time I’m done with it, it will be in as good shape as a brandnew canoe,” he says.
Zeitoun anticipates the job will take about 80 hours of work, and he’s hoping to get it done by the beginning of September so Cory Gladish can take it out on the water.
“It’s not going to be kept as a show piece or an heirloom that’s protected,” he says.
Ailsa Gladish says her grandson loves being on the water, and has been white water rafting for years.
She says he’s more than welcome to take the canoe out anytime.
“He would never do it any harm,” she says. “He’d make sure it was not damaged.”
Knowing the canoe will be back on the water is exciting for Zeitoun, an avid canoeist and camper.
“I’m passionate about the woodwork aspect of it and I’m passionate about how it’s going to be used.”