Canoe builder teaches traditional ways because ‘It is all about education’

By Kelly Anne Smith

NORTH BAY— Little Warrior glides silently over the calm waters of Trout Lake, in North Bay, Ontario. That is the name of Mike Gauthier’s traditional birch bark canoe skimming the pristine lake. It’s called Little Warrior because Gauthier is a kid at heart and very much a warrior.

Gauthier is a member of Mattawa North Bay Algonquin First Nation who has been building traditional canoes for over 18 years. Over the years his passion has developed into Aboriginal Creative Adventures, a business teaching groups of youth from various organizations.

“There is a real interest for us to come into the schools and teach on different levels. So we are instructing on and off-reserve to keep our culture alive,” noted Gauthier. The course includes the two-step process of harvesting for materials and the construction of a traditional birch bark canoe.

The organization gets to keep the finished product often with their own emblem marked into the bark or from natural tree art. There is an emblem on Gauthier’s canoe. “Every canoe we have made has an emblem. We may get visions to do that. One student was from the Wolf Clan. When he took the bark off, it looked like a wolf. This time I made the canoe. I took the bark off but I’m like a little warrior so I put a warrior on it.”

Gauthier promotes the Indigenous way of life. Chief Clifford Bastien fully supports him in passing on his teachings.

Gauthier traveled to Oshawa, Ontario, recently to try out the canoe out on rough waters. Many curious people came to have a closer look at the canoe designed to sit in on furs. One man offered money to take it out. “I didn’t want money. I said, “Hop in it and go for a paddle. Just bring it back so somebody else can take a turn.” It was pretty rough out there, but the pictures were going steady. They really enjoyed it.”

Constructing canoes takes time – about 600 hours’ worth. But first, harvesting the necessary materials from nearby forests must be done. Gauthier often has the help of Dale Batisse, an Ojibway from Matachewan First Nation and Lindsey Cote, a former Chief of Temagami First Nation Land Claim who runs sweat lodges and is committed to the Sundance ceremony. Gauthier says he couldn’t do it without them. Gauthier also appreciates the cooperative relationship he has with Ontario Parks in the harvest season.

Trees are changing says Gauthier. There are lots of warts in the bark of trees which he never saw as a younger man. “As things are changing in the environment, so it is in the bush.”

To keep water from getting in the seams, a sealer is applied of bear fat with ashes from a fire pit of maple with black spruce gum. It is all sewn with black spruce roots. Inside of it is all cedar ridges.

Being traditional, it is made with just one dowel in the front and back. No nails or screws are used. Wiigwaas or birch bark is taken from a live standing tree. Water is used in all the steps to keep everything pliable. Gauthier says he brought one modern tool into production, a pair of scissors. “I was tired of always getting stitches,” noted Gauthier.

Little Warrior took 18 days to make, but a traditional birch bark canoe can take 8 weeks to make.

There are only three builders left in Ontario, but Gauthier says they are not passing on their knowledge. “It is all about education. I was asked to teach students at the Mississauga First Nation.”

He told the story of one youth that had been struggling in school. “He had so much confidence after the way I taught that he graduated with honours. His teacher told me, “I don’t know what you did to him but you changed his life,” stated Gauthier

“Students will get me up with a coffee at [six in the morning] and we are doing ceremonies until class starts at 9am. They like that,” added Gauthier.

Little Warrior is a work of art floating on the water. So light for a canoe yet so strong at 40 lbs. Gauthier holds his finger and thumb about two millimetres apart. “It is only that thick.” He has built a canoe that was 16 ft to hold 600 lbs. His biggest canoe is 32ft fitting 18 warriors.

Dale Batisse took the canoe out onto Trout Lake for a paddle. The craft cuts across the water quickly. Dale expertly brought it back to shore and jumped out passing it to Mike. Mike tipped up the canoe to show how dry it is. “See, not a drop,” he says. “Just as our ancestors did it.”