A local Mi’kmaq Artisan is preparing to launch his 16-foot traditional birch bark canoe in Lunenburg on Treaty Day.
Todd Labrador, who grew up on the Wildcat Reservation in Queens County, has just finished his 18th full sized canoe, which he has been working on at the Lunenburg School of the Arts since early September.
He said educating the public about his ancestors and working on the canoe in Lunenburg has been well received.
“This one we built really quickly,” said Labrador. “We had more than a thousand visitors since September 7th, so its been a wonderful experience building here in Lunenburg.”
He says he’s mostly self taught when it comes to building the traditional canoes.
“My father told me a lot of stories and a lot of things about how to harvest birch bark, how to collect spruce root, and how to bend wood,” explained Labrador. ” I took what he told me, but most of it you have to learn on your own.”
Labrador added that it takes time to harvest all the materials to build these, including the birch bark which must be harvested a year before he can start working on one.
He explained that continuing to build traditional birch bark canoes is important because they are a big part of Mi’kmaq history.
“We didn’t have horses, so we didn’t have any other means of travelling but by foot,” explained Labrador. “If you took a birch bark canoe, you could load the whole family and your belongings and rather than walk around the lake, you could go right across it.
Labrador plans to leave the Lunenburg School of the Arts to carry the canoe to the water around 1p.m. on Friday October 1st, which marks the beginning of Mi’kmaq History Month in Nova Scotia.
The public is invited to walk with Todd and the canoe to the water, or meet him at the waterfront near the Dory Shop on Bluenose Drive in Lunenburg around 1:30p.m. to enjoy the launch.
