taken from: Globe and Mail

“As a nation, we have to understand we’re living together, paddling together.”

At the end of this month, B.C.’s first aboriginal lieutenant-governor, Steven Point, expects to complete his river canoe, made from a large piece of roughed-out cedar he found not far from his official residence in Victoria.

“Somebody started this, and I’m finishing it,” said Mr. Point, a former chief of the Skowkale First Nation in Chilliwack the Fraser Valley and provincial court judge who became lieutenant-governor in 2007.

Accustomed to walking on the beach overlooking Juan de Fuca Strait, he was standing on the weathered, original-growth timber when he realized someone had taken knife to wood decades ago. But for some unknown reason, whoever started the canoe didn’t complete it.

“The rule is, you start it, you finish it,” Mr. Point said. A “calamity” of some sort must have paralyzed the project, he said.

Last October, the rescued wood was brought to Government House and, in March, the 58-year-old began crafting his first canoe.

Soon after, internationally known B.C. artist and KwaGulth hereditary chief Tony Hunt Sr. heard about the project from a friend. Known for his 12-metre-long seagoing canoes, Mr. Hunt, 66, was intrigued by His Honour’s plans.

“Being an artist and a carver, I decided to have a look at it,” Mr. Hunt said. “This canoe is very unusual. No one makes them any more. The last one was made probably 50 years ago.”

Mr. Point’s traditional canoe will have a dirt-filled bow where a fire, to attract fish, will be made. A mast made of woven bulrushes will be placed beyond the dirt. Hidden behind the mast, the paddler will spear the dazzled fish.

Several generations ago, such canoes, used primarily for salmon fishing, were everyday sights on the Fraser River.

“You didn’t get a Volkswagen when you were old enough, you got a canoe,” Mr. Point said.

Painted using the three traditional Coast Salish colours of red, black and green, the canoe will be decorated with a sea serpent design. Mr. Point figures he’s put in 20 solid days of work on the project, in between a jam-packed schedule that requires him to travel to official functions throughout the province. Last year, he attended 450 events.

“My job interferes with my passion,” he said.

Still, he’s been known to work on the canoe from 9 a.m. to midnight, finding it difficult to pull himself away from his workshop.

Calling him a “fun guy to work with,” Mr. Hunt is impressed by Mr. Point’s determination.

“If he has an hour or two, he takes off his official clothes, puts on his shorts, T-shirt and headband, and races down to the canoe,” Mr. Hunt said.

Beyond the canoe’s physical attraction, its symbolic meaning also inspires the Lieutenant-Governor.

“This project brings together threads of things I’ve thought about for a long time about reconciliation,” said Mr. Point, who served as the BC Treaty Commission’s chief commissioner from 2005 to 2007.

“I look at the world as one canoe, and we’re all paddling in it together. We have to decide where we’re going. Aboriginal people as well have to turn a page on the past. We’ve got to let it go,” he said.

“As a nation, we have to understand we’re living together, paddling together.”

Known as the “unity” canoe project, the roughly three-metre-long boat will be named Shxwtitostel, a Hul’q'umi’num’ word meaning “a safe place to cross the river.”

The canoe’s significance isn’t lost on Mr. Hunt: “Once you’re in a canoe, you all have to work together to survive.”

After testing the vessel, Mr. Point will bring it back to Government House, where it will be permanently placed on the grounds so the public can view it, making him most likely the first B.C. lieutenant-governor to bestow a personally crafted object on the 14.6-hectare property.

A totem pole will also be installed on the premises, once inhabited by the Coast Salish.

“It’s nice to remind people of the presence,” Mr. Point said.