- 1 In North America, beyond the natural range of the paper birch, other bark types have been used, su (...)
1While undoubtedly of remarkable complexity, studies – almost exclusively focused on North American paper birch bark canoes (Roberts, Shackleton 1983; Jennings 2002; Neuzil, Sims 2016) – have ultimately masked the specific characteristics of these latter in comparison with other nautical spaces, such as Australia, East Africa and South America.1
- 2 Basic data collected from the innumerable detailed sketches inserted in the figures published in A (...)
2Our recent studies, centred on these three spaces, have enabled us to highlight a number of key features. Thus, the Australian canoes are characterised by remarkable development in sewing techniques, equalling or even exceeding those used in North America (fig. 1).2 However, in Amazonia/Guyana on the one hand, and in East Africa on the other, the canoes are distinguished by intensive, if not exclusive, employment of folding techniques (fig. 3/2–9), strongly influenced by the sometimes very great thickness of the bark collected. These folding techniques made it possible for the constructors to avoid the challenges related to watertightness.
Fig. 1: Seams observed on North American canoes
a) back stitch; b) harness stitch; c) running stitch; d-e) half cross stitch; f) overcast lashing with a series of 4-6 double (or sometimes triple) loops and a space intended for the insertion of a rib end.
(after Adney, Chapelle 1964)
3Depending on the tree species, the bark can sometimes be very thick (up to 40 mm). In this case, an ogival-shaped piece of bark is cut directly from part of the unfelled tree, which survives the process (Upper Xingú, Amazonia; Murray River Basin, Australia). Alternatively, for thinner bark (8-15 mm or less), it is entirely removed in the form of a split cylinder, which generally leads to the death of the tree. A circular slit is cut at the base of the tree, with another at a height corresponding to the length of the planned canoe, and the two slits are connected by a further, vertical cut. The inherent thickness and rigidity of the bark also directly influence the form and type of the canoe produced. This rigidity is often temporarily reduced by heating the bark or, for example in East Africa, sometimes by soaking it in water for several days.
4In North America, as in Siberia, the entire construction has been influenced by the preferential – not to say exclusive – use of birch bark. This bark is characterised by being extremely durable though it is also extremely thin, lacking intrinsic rigidity, and thus requires the insertion of a range of elements to make the structure rigid and to mechanically protect the bark.
5In Australia, in many cases, it can be observed that the bark has been inverted, with the internal face constituting the exterior of the hull. This is also the case with the thin birch bark, which is used for the majority of canoes in North America. However, the bark is never inverted for canoes in East Africa and Amazonia.
6The simplest folding technique consists of placing the tips (fig. 2) against each other: in other words, the sides of the ends of the removed cylinder of bark (fig. 3/12). This area must then be made watertight. Another technique involves maintaining the tips together by apical lashings and inserting a stretcher of a very specific length close to the tips. This enables the end of the canoe to be raised by virtue of its geometry to above the flotation line, with the end taking on the form of the spout of a teapot (fig. 3/11). No process to ensure watertightness is then required. Such canoes are found on the Rivers Purus and Madeira, tributaries of the Amazon (Arnold 2017a, fig. 19), and are exemplified by the kapepe canoes of Tanzania (Arnold 2014, fig. p. 37).
Fig. 2: Technical terms used (hybrid sketch adapted to the canoes of South America 1, and Mozambique 2)
Fig. 3: Types of single sheet canoe (1-14)
1) Simple bark-canoe, with lowered or raised sides (à une plaque brute et flancs réduits ou élevés); 2) with one end pushed inward (à extrémité enfoncée); 3) open-ended woodskin (woodskin à extrémités ouvertes); 4) rolled bark woodskin (woodskin à écorce enroulée); 5) with longitudinally folded ends (à levées plissées longitudinalement); 6) with shrouds (à haubans); 7) with ears (à oreilles); 8) with closing stem (avec une tige de fermeture); 9) with spikes (à fiches); 10) with independent raised ends (à levées indépendantes); 11) with apical lashings (à ligatures sommitales); 12) with distal seams (à couture distale); 13) with distal seams reinforced by a simple or 14) complex rectilinear structure (à couture distale renforcée par une structure rectiligne simple ou complexe).
(CAD illustration: Maeva Arnold; after Arnold 2017a, fig. 164, 2019, fig. 15)
7Along the southeastern coast of Australia, the aboriginal canoe (the tied bark canoe) presents folded, crumpled ends, located above the flotation line and maintained in place by a single extensive lashing (Arnold 2015, figs 20–30). In South America, on the frontier zone between Brazil and French Guiana, we note the presence of a canoe constructed by the Oyampi people with raised, shaped ends, maintained in place by a strong lashing. And finally, in the north of Mozambique spikes are used (fig. 3/5; Arnold 2019, fig. 22).
8The bark is sometimes so thick that it is not possible to press the tips against each other. The rigidity of the bark sheet is then such that heating enables the ends to be raised only very slightly, bringing them a little above the flotation line, and no particular reinforcement of the hull is required (fig. 3/1). This is the case in the canoes used on the Murray and Darling Rivers in the State of Victoria (Arnold 2015, figs 12–18), or on the Rio Biá in the Amazon Basin (Arnold 2017a, figs 30–32). On the Upper Xingú (Amazon Basin), after heating the widest end, the central area of the bark cylinder is raised and pressed inwards, this area then taking on a V or W shape (fig. 3/2). A similar technique is often employed on the numerous rectangular canoes on the interior waters of Mozambique (fig. 3/6–9). The lateral parts are sometimes folded against the raised area and secured using bamboo spikes (fig. 3/9; Arnold 2017b, fig. 5). In other cases, the raised part is simply maintained in place with shrouds (fig. 3/6; Arnold 2019, fig. 60–62), or a horizontal closing pole inserted through the protruding end of the sides, which are known as ears (fig. 3/7; Arnold 2019, fig. 67–72).
9In many woodskins from Guyana, fashioned from medium thickness bark, the sides at the point where the ends begin to angle upwards present a slit halfway through the thickness of the bark, enabling the ends to be raised with an S or Z fold while preserving the original watertightness of this area (figs 3/3 and 4a). A rope, which we have called a tensioner, straddles the slit and maintains the raised end in position. This tensioner is sometimes consolidated by a sophisticated lashing of overlapping oblong cross stitch type (Arnold 2017a, figs 55–56): a lashing which has been observed on only one other occasion, to assemble the tips on two canoes used in Australia, one of which was collected on Melville Island in Arnhem Land (Arnold 2015, figs 75–78). This type of slit to halfway through the bark has also been observed on a model canoe in elm made by the Iroquois on Lake Huron, prior to 1831 (fig. 4b; Fenton, Dodge 1949, p. 185–188).
Fig. 4: a) Z-shaped fold made by a slit into the thickness of the bark and partial release of the internal bark on one side (1) in order to raise (2) the ends of a woodskin from Guyana (Arnold 2017a, fig. 54); b) S fold to half way through the bark, observed on the model in elm of an Iroquois canoe (created before 1831) and view of the consolidation on the inside of the canoe (after Fenton, Dodge 1949, fig. 1)
10And finally, a specific type of woodskin, which we have designated as a “rolled-bark” woodskin (fig. 3/4), is characterised by the use of bark that rolls in on itself very significantly as it dries, progressively reducing the initial depth of the canoe to half (Arnold 2017a, fig. 73), a process similar to that involved in folding. This part then forms a type of split cylinder on either side of the canoe, very significantly reinforcing the longitudinal rigidity of the craft.
11With medium thickness barks – those between 8 and 15 mm – the tips are often pressed against each other and maintained together with a vertical seam. If it is not raised, this area must clearly be made watertight.
12The tops of the sides are generally reinforced by a long stem lashed or sewn to the top of the bark (the gunwale pole). The spread of the hull is ensured by short transverse elements (stretchers), which prevent the sides from closing and, in parallel, ropes or ties enabling the opening to be controlled. With the exception of the edges of the sheet, no element pierces the bark of the hull. This prevents it from tearing at these points as a result of variations in tension and thus to cracks in the bark. Numerous canoes of this type have been used in Australia, but also in an area corresponding to the median strip of southern Africa. The rectangular canoes of Mozambique are, however, often characterised by very compact bark in which the stretchers end in a pointed shoulder, which is forced through the bark (fig. 3/6).
13These canoes are characterised by the speed of construction: half to one day for the removal of the bark and the same again for the creation of the canoe. As for the duration of use, this can sometimes be just a few days or months, but can be two or three years. This is, therefore, an object produced rapidly and discarded as quickly. Such canoes (in elm, hickory, basswood etc.; Jennings 2004) are also present in North America. In the current case, the tip areas are consolidated by inserting them between two more or less vertical stems.
14A large assemblage of canoes present in North America, but also in eastern Siberia, is characterised by the use of exceptionally thin bark (less than 4 mm). In North America, these are constructed from the paper birch (Betula papyrifera). The thinness of this bark and its intrinsic lack of rigidity lead to the use of exceptional and complex procedures with the installation of a peripheral set of stakes supporting the thin bark during the construction, the insertion of a support structure in the ends (fig. 3/13–14), and the installation of thin sheathing planks and thin broad ribs. It takes two weeks to complete this type of canoe, which can be used for a decade or even up to half a century.
- 3 See also Mason, Hill 1901, bottom of pl. 4. The images at the bottom of pl. 3 and 4 have been reve (...)
15In the Amur Basin, the gunwale poles are attached to the sheet placed flat on the ground, supplemented if necessary by other fragments of bark sheets. The longitudinal seam is of running stitch type with a very short section on the exterior face, this section being covered by a single dot of black mastic to make it watertight, the whole providing a type of decoration on the hull by means of a set of large dots (fig. 5).3 After this, longitudinal sheathing planks and a network of interlaced or transverse thin planks are inserted. Sometimes the entire assembly is complemented by intercalary bark sheets, after which the generally cylindrical shape of the canoe is formed by transversely folding the structure with ropes. Finally, the extremities of the bark are cut obliquely, in the direction of the central area and up to the gunwale poles. The bark is then edged with a stem (Ling 1970, p. 51, 73, fig. 12, pl. 15; Levin, Potapov 1964, fig. p. 704). The end thus takes on a form resembling a spur or sturgeon nose.
Fig. 5: Running stitch seam with short segments on the outer face of the canoe. Each short segment is made watertight by covering it with a large dot of black mastic (Yakut canoe, Siberia)
(photography B. Arnold)
16For a multi-sheet bark canoe, the bark sheets along the longitudinal seams are assembled edge-to-edge or overlapping and enclose watertight bundles (with the exception of those of North America and Siberia). These bundles also act as shock absorbers for the ropes, not to protect the latter as is the case in sewn plank boats, but to protect the bark and prevent it from tearing (Arnold 2004). Here, the ropes are generally passed through holes punched in the bark and thus of lenticular form. Making these locations watertight is initially carried out by sealing them using mastic often based on beeswax or, in Africa, plugged with fragments of thin fabric or cotton extracted from wild species. Three types of multi-sheet bark canoe can be identified: those with washstrakes, the two-shell type (bivalve; Arnold 2015, p. 56–61), the three-piece type (bipyramidal) with sheets assembled using the clinker technique (Arnold 2015, p. 52–55) or flush-laid (Arnold 2017a, p. 77, 81, 85).
17Unlike the canoes created by folding alone, the procedures employed for sewing constitute one of the key elements in the construction of bark canoes, even those formed from a single sheet of bark and with pressed tips. With the development of sewing techniques, there is a gradual movement from folding to assemblage, and thus to the use of techniques based on caulking, luting, sealing and watertight bundles.
18Depending on the thickness of the bark, the addition of hull reinforcement elements, particularly in the apical area, also plays an important role in obtaining a stable form. These elements consist of stems of varying lengths maintained in place by lashing (short ropes) or sewing (long ropes). Finally, the relative fragility of the bark requires all of the attachments to be positioned in the peripheral areas of the bark sheet, at the edges, and never through the central area.
19These are normally executed using thin, compact and very long elements presenting good longitudinal cohesion and trimmed into a point thus obviating the use of a needle: lianas, roots (subterranean or aerial), strips or shaped ribbons of bark or wood, or cuts from whalebone.
20The use of cord made from fibres, and thus presenting no longitudinal rigidity, leads to a series of new problems. Such cord has to be manufactured in advance, and around 50 m is required for a single muterere, of about 3-3.5 m, from the region of the Island of Mozambique. The use of such cord essentially requires the employment of large needles (Arnold 2019, p. 87–89). For the muterere, this is not a traditional needle with an eye, made from bone or metal, but a leaflet from the compound frond of a palm tree attached to the cord by means of three successive twists (fig. 6). An intervention taking just a few seconds is required for the point of the leaflet to be used as a needle.
Fig. 6: Muterere canoe: method for attaching the needle (light grey: 1) to the folded cord (dark grey: 2) by three successive twists: 3, 5 and 6
(Arnold 2019, fig. 239)
21This brief overview of bark canoes highlights their similarities and differences on the basis of the presence of trees enabling the extraction of large bark sheets, the thickness of the latter and their inherent rigidity, the exclusive use of folding techniques in order to avoid resolving problems of watertightness, or on the contrary the development of sometimes very sophisticated sewing techniques associated with the use of processes to ensure watertightness. The straps are almost systematically made from a single piece presenting good longitudinal cohesion, trimmed to a point, requiring almost no preparatory work (except keeping them humid and thus flexible). In this context, the use of a needle is exceptional.
22The canoes present a specific structure, characterised by extreme rapidity of manufacture. As for the duration of use, with the exception of those in paper birch, this is exceptionally short and the canoe corresponds to a consumer product with a brief lifespan: manufactured quickly, used for a very brief period then abandoned. This is not the case for the birch bark canoes of North America.
23It should also be noted that these bark canoes are the result of highly developed concepts, whether using folding or sewing techniques. Therefore, they fundamentally differ from other assemblages of raft type, boats consisting of assembled planks, a framework covered by a flexible envelope or a hollowed trunk. Often, even the simplest bark canoes provide considerable evidence of the exceptional expertise of indigenous craftsmen and of their knowledge of the properties of the natural elements surrounding them. Finally, these canoes require an in-depth analytical approach in order to understand the specific details of their construction, which are often highly developed, but sometimes difficult to identify.
24Translated by Jane Davis