The creation of a xwax’wana, a traditional canoe, using traditional methods, from a windfall cedar tree high in H’kusam Forest for the first time in more than one hundred years by carvers from We Wai Kai, Wei Wai Kum, and K’ómoks First Nations
Inspiration
“We had no blueprints, no knowledge of how to handle this wood, but with the three generations of carvers and knowledge we had here, Max has a lot of building experience for the set-up, Karver and I learned from him, and we all had carving experience. There were things we didn’t know how to do, for sure. We just learnt as we went. Now we’re able to leave a blueprint for the next generation.” —Junior Henderson, Wei Wai Kum
“We had incredible chemistry and worked really well together as a team, looking beyond ourselves…. what does this do for our people? What does this do to inspire, to keep the culture alive for the next generation? … How can we really inspire the next generation to want to pick this up and want to do what we do and to carry on the culture? It’s not always an easy thing, but I think there’s so much beauty and magic in what we did.” —Karver Everson, K’ómoks
Uplifting
“We made new history, but old history at the same time… this hasn’t been done here for more than one hundred years.” Max Chickite, We Wai Kai
“That’s what you hope, that our people will be uplifted. If this gets talked about more and more, the more our people will be uplifted and proud of what we’ve done.” —Junior Henderson
Sharing knowledge
“There were three generations of carvers doing this together. We proved that people can do this. People will talk about this, about us, for the rest of their lives.” —Max Chickite
“There’s no real boss here. It’s a collaboration. We just make it happen.” —Max Chickite
Sharing joy
“When we were sitting there amongst our ancestors in the forest and chipping away at the log, it was so peaceful and calm, and time didn’t matter. Sometimes even what day it was didn’t matter. You got lost in that as you spent the time up there realizing what we were doing and making history. I thought about my father and my grandparents, and all the struggles they went through and there we were recreating that way of life again, living with this canoe, loving it, caring for it each and every day that we were there and treating it like as it was part of us.” —Junior Henderson
“The more that we work together, the stronger we are as Bak̕wam people… this has been an example of how we can move mountains and really change the landscape.” —Karver Everson
“I think that working together is the important part. The biggest message here is that our Nations can come together and we can create magic, and we can make good amongst ourselves and not have anybody else have to make it better for us… Coming back here to the land brings back that understanding of how we are stronger together… just like these trees that we’ve been sitting amongst, they are stronger together than when you cut them away. That’s how our communities were back in the day.” —Junior Henderson
The story
Over a period of four months in the winter and early summer of 2024, three outstanding Kwakwaka’wakw/ Ligʷiłdaxʷ carvers – Max Chickite (We Wai Kai), Junior Henderson (Wei Wai Kum) and Karver Everson (K’ómoks) worked together to create a xwax’wana, a traditional canoe, using traditional methods, from a windfall cedar tree high in H’kusam Forest. It was the first time in more than one hundred years that this had been done by people from these Nations, because of the disruption of colonization and the separation of First Nations people from their lands and waters by the colonizers.
The revitalization of the ancestral practice of xwax’wana (canoe) carving is part of the Nations’ intergenerational forest stewardship strategy, bringing together not only the carvers from the different Nations but knowledge keepers, elders, youth and Indigenous Guardians to help decolonize canoe carving and support connection to lands and waters, community wellbeing, and cultural strength.
The finished carved canoe, which is approximately ten meters long, was moved by the carvers and community members from all of the Nations from its location in H’kusam Forest to the Kelsey Bay Spit, Sayward on May 20, where it was steamed in the traditional way. It was then painted and made ready for blessing, naming, and launching in a formal ceremony on July 17.
Travelling together
The name Na̱max̱sa̱la which it was given signifies “travelling in a boat together.” Na̱max̱sa̱la was paddled to Cape Mudge on Quadra Island that day where it was formally welcomed by the three First Nations communities when it arrived around 6pm that evening. It was accompanied at the start of the eleven-hour journey as well as at its end by humpback whales.
The creation of the canoe is symbolic of the ways in which the First Nations are coming together not only to reclaim their ways of life, but to work together as Kawakwaka’wakw/ Ligʷiłdaxʷ people to build even greater strength, to share knowledge, to inspire future generations and to live with joy and pride in who they are, who they have always been, and who they will always be. The future holds great promise as the next generation walks the pathway that people like these carvers are building for them. This journey, which is far from over, has been a transformative, magical, healing one for the carvers, their families, their communities and their Nations.
Watch this space
A short documentary film of the making of Na̱max̱sa̱la by Hakai Magazine is in the works. Watch this space for it to be available before the end of the year. In the meantime, for more information about the xwax’wana project, get in touch! We are happy to answer your questions any time and to put you in touch with the carvers.