Canoe maker hopes someone will continue tradition

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Presented with an opportunity to share his artistic talent with his community, Albert West has carved himself out a niche on Cormorant Island.

West is the resident canoe maker for the 'Namgis First Nation and has held this role for the past six years. Now 69, he has created 10 canoes during this time. He embarked on his most recent project for the reserve's invitational canoe gathering this month.

A laborer and artist by trade, West was involved in the construction of a Big House in Ottawa in 1972 and became a fine arts diploma graduate of Camosun College in Victoria, at the age of 42, specializing in commercial arts three years later.

For 20 years, regular jobs kept him from pursuing his artistic passion, until a friend convinced him to take on a new carving project.

The friend said, "Al, come take a look at this log, I want you to build a canoe," West said. "That man gave me an uplifting gift," he added about the moment he drew inspiration for carving again.

His roots in canoe making were inherited from his family tree. Clutching a copy of a photograph taken in 1915 of a boat outside the house where he now resides, West remembers what his grandfather told him 60 years ago.

"He passed the adze when I was 10 years old and he said 'Take this and learn how to use it.' Now I'm a master of the adze," said West.

A cedar log, found within the Nimpkish Valley in northern Vancouver Island, was chosen on its look and on how solid it sounded.

West prefers to use modern tools, employing a power saw to do the initial shaping of the boat. It takes two weeks for the hollowing process instead of two months by hand.

Once the log has been hollowed, a rock "stew" is used to bend the wood. Combining a dozen hot rocks with water and simmering overnight covered with a tarp to preserve the warmth, the log will sink about 15 centimetres, the depth needed for a canoe to float.

"I'll splash warm water inside the canoe to preserve (seal) the strength into the wood," West said.

Seats are then installed about a metre apart so that a 10-metre boat will have seven or eight planks. A railing is placed on top of the bulwarks, the sides of the canoe, to give riders something to hang onto when the water is choppy. West's canoes are about five centimetres thick, enough to withstand the waters of the protected Johnstone Strait.

Sanded down electrically and then painted, the boat is finished. West admits that in years gone by, an old sharkskin would have been used to manually smooth out the canoe and oolichan oil would have preserved the wood.

The entire process takes about five weeks, and up to a dozen volunteers are involved.

Self-taught in the craft, West doesn't need any blueprints for the job.

"When I carve, all the designs fit into place. There is no copy, it just fits right in," said West, pointing to his head. "I analyze it in my mind when I see the log and it takes shape already when I visualize it."

The paddles themselves are works of art. Five feet long, painted feathers along the handle indicate the rank of the canoeist within the tribe. A pointed end also at one time fitted the paddle to be used as a weapon against either man or beast.

West's canoe was built for the recent 'Namgis canoe gathering in Woss (Wa'as) Lake. Believing he has many more years of carving left, West doesn't quite know who will take over from him when the time comes, but he hopes his craft won't be lost.

"My people need me to pass along the culture to my grandkids," West said.

Next year his nephew, for his wedding, will use a canoe to cross the strait to pick up his bride and return to the village for the ceremony.