Tseshaht "Going Home" Canoe and Canoe Shed Project

Overview:

Tseshaht Ahp cii uk and Tseshaht Recreation have come together to support the return to the historic tradition of journeying in an ocean going cedar canoe. All age groups within our community have expressed the keen desire to step back into an ocean going canoe with a hunger to paddle to the birth place of our Tseshaht ancestors in the Broken Group Islands. They have a strong desire to fully participate in the ongoing annual Northwest Coast canoe gathering called Tribal Journeys which reinstates Northwest Coast traditions, ceremony, and protocol around canoe travel and visiting neighboring communities. In our language we say waalthshitl “going home”. For information on Tribal Journeys see www.tribaljourneys.wordpress.com

First this project will involve carving a traditional 30 foot ocean going canoe. It will re-establish this tradition by bringing a master carver to instruct two Tseshaht apprentice carvers who will carry the canoe carving knowledge for the next generations. We have a canoe log cut ready to be transported and carved. This project will bring together our experts; the Master Carver, our Elders and families and youth to instill traditional etiquette and protocol pertinent to use, care and safe travelling in an ocean going canoe. The canoe will be carved and ready for the summer canoe gatherings of 2012.

Second we will build a Canoe Shed to ensure care, increase longevity, and protect the canoe. In the most basic way it provides shelter from the northwest coastal elements. When not in use we need to safeguard it from the drying effects of the sun and the winter snow and freeze which can crack a canoe. It will reinforce the traditional value of “respect for all living things”. Upon completion and prior to the first paddle a traditional ceremony will be done to cleanse, celebrate, and “call” the life into the canoe making it ready to safely carry our most precious cargo. Once it has been called to life it is mandatory that it be cared for, protected and respected as any other living being.

Further, this will reinforce family ties and inter tribal relationships important to healthy First Nations community. It will breathe life into the core northwest coast traditional teachings of “being in one canoe” and “pulling together”.

How This Will Work For US

This project will affect and improve the quality of life for individual community members and families in many ways, including; overall physical and health benefits, improved emotional, mental, and spiritual wellness by bringing our people to a place of renewed connection to our origins and traditional means of wellness. The bonds of family and community will strengthen.

Preparing begins in the spring when the fall and winter waters have settled a little. It continues on throughout the summer and into the fall with daily or weekly pulls to prepare or stay ready for any upcoming gathering. This affords an extended period of time for physical activity and the continued connection between the generations in the cultural sharing of traditional knowledge where the Elders fulfill their role as teachers and the young families and youth fulfill theirs as students within our community structure.

This past summer we put our feet on this path when our Tribe purchased a small fiber glass river canoe and began regular paddles in the river and lake. The excitement and committment of our young families and individuals to the canoe inspired our community to come together to support this fundraising effort and to continue this grassroots community movement.

Our community needs this 30 foot ocean going canoe to travel safely in the open waters of the Pacific Ocean. Being without an ocean going canoe has created a hardship and has restricted our families and our community in their ability to paddle home to the cradle of our first peoples in the Broken Group Islands and has kept us from actively participating as a Tribe in the annual Tribal Journeys gatherings.

Our Working Group has enjoyed working together and we are confident that it can be completed well within the specified time frame and that it indeed, will bring quality of life improvements to many individuals and families in our community.

As Tseshaht community we are grateful to AVIVA for allowing us this opportunity to enter the competition. We are excited at the opportunity and possibility of working together with you on this “Going Home” project that will bring benefits to many generations of Tseshaht people.

Our community wants to “Go Home”, by our traditional means, to the Broken Group Islands, we want to be able to carve more canoes into the future, and to be fully represented as a Tribe in future northwest coast canoe gatherings such as Tribal Journeys. The Tseshaht First Nation grassroots community is asking for your support and your vote for our "Going Home" Canoe and Canoe Shed Project.

uushy'akshitlee?ic'uu with gratitude as "you have a done a great service"