[BCMA] Ojibwe canoe on offer

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv.]

Hello, everyone out there in Museum-land!

 

An elderly gentleman here in Creston is offering a traditional birch-bark
canoe. It doesn't fit within our collections, nor within our space, so I am
trying on his behalf to find a good home for it. Here's what he told me
about how he got it:

 

Bill Menduk (known as "Bilkie") grew up in Natal, BC and became a cameraman
for the CBC, hosting a program for children that involved "a song that never
ends." He went all over the world with the CBC, and at some pointed landed
in an Ojibwe area and the people gave him a traditional birch-bark canoe.
Because of his unsettled lifestyle, Bilkie had no way of taking care of the
canoe. One day, in the mid-1950s, Bilkie happened to be in Natal at the same
time as our donor, Bill, and his wife, Nan (who had also grown up in Natal),
were visiting Nan's sister. The three of them were chatting when Bilkie
mentioned that he had asked his brother to look after it, but, he said, "I
found out his idea of looking after it was to dump it out in a field
somewhere." So Bilkie asked Bill and Nan if they would take the canoe, to
which Nan promptly replied, "Of course we would!" So they loaded the canoe
on top of their station wagon and brought it home to Creston - where it has
sat upside down in their carport ever since. At one point, Bill was
gathering up all the pitch he could find, intending to re-pitch the canoe
and use it - "I saw myself out on French's slough, paddling with Nan," he
said - but somehow in the sixty-plus years he's had it, that has never
happened.

 

I haven't seen the canoe myself, but Bill tells me it's about 14 feet long
and in fair condition. Because the canoe has been dry for decades, there is
some cracking, and at one point a porcupine got into the carport and chewed
one of the ribs, though the pieces are all there.

 

Bill really wants it to go somewhere where it can be viewed and appreciated
- but as I say, it's not something we can provide a home for. I am more than
happy to help you connect with him, though, if you're interested in it!

 

Tammy

 

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Tammy Bradford, Manager

Creston Museum

219 Devon Street, Creston BC V0B 1G3

250-428-9262

 

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