Indigenous war canoes will compete on False Creek for the first time in a century

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For the first time in 100 years, Indian war canoes will compete on False Creek.

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“It’s great to be back,” said Mike Billy, a master carver from the Squamish Nation whose hereditary name, Lemchacha Siyam, means canoe builder.

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On Saturday and Sunday, the first Four Fires Festival will bring war canoe races to False Creek, with prizes including a $20,000 cedar strip canoe and a festival featuring live music, hoop dancing, indigenous artisans and traditional foods.

The event is organized by Canoe Cultures, an indigenous-led non-profit organization dedicated to caring for and passing on canoe-building skills, and brings together clubs from more than 12 nations to compete in races held every day from 11 am to 7 pm

“This is history in the making,” said Caroline Phelps, a member of the board of directors for Canoe Cultures, a member of Nuu-chah-nulth and Stó:lō Nations. “Canoe racing is one of the traditional practices that was never lost during colonial times. Even after the potlatch ban and the gathering ban, they occurred in our territories and on our reservations.”

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“It was a way to keep us together,” added Billy. “We were allowed to do it because it was a sport, but the traditions go back thousands of years.”

For generations, the races have been held on summer weekends in indigenous communities along the West Coast. Now, the season will culminate in Vancouver, with riders honed by months of competition and water-hardened canoes.

“At the beginning of the season, we like to splash water on the front of the canoe to wake them up and let them know it’s time to go,” said Mike Billy Jr., 22, an avid runner who has learned to carve with his father for the past three years.

The canoe itself is part of the equipment and a member of the family that built it.

“There’s a competitive part to our canoe building: we love it when our canoes win, we’re rooting for our canoe, even if it’s another team paddling it,” said Billy, the eldest.

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Billy, a seventh-generation carver, said that each canoe has its own personality.

“Some people win all the time, and I don’t know why,” he said. “Lady K is a 40-year-old canoe, a canoe that weighs twice as much as a strip canoe, and she always wins. Other canoes crash into it and you can hear them creak.”

It may be because of the tree and the relationship of the canoe with the carver who built it. Billy’s father taught him a lot about trees, about the logs they turned into the canoes they became.

“My dad used to tell me that if you have a tree that wants to do well, and a guy that wants to build a good canoe, and a guy that wants to race, you will have a good canoe and a chance to win. Billy said.

“You have to sit with the log and be with him, and he will show you what he wants to be. You and the tree have to agree, because it has to give its life to become a canoe, if it wants to be a canoe. And when you reach an agreement, you can start.”

The relationship continues through the making of the canoe.

“When you get to work in the morning, you sit next to the log and sit with it. You can’t work on it if you’re in a bad mood. You have to keep a clear mind and a good heart,” Billy said.

“It’s amazing that we’re going to do this right in the middle of downtown. It shows people that we are still here, we are still practicing our culture,” added Billy Jr.

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