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Metadata
Title |
Black Eagle Canoe |
Object Name |
Canoe, Sailing |
Catalog Number |
2005.4.1.21 |
Creator |
Bill Reid |
Date |
[ca. 1992] |
Scope & Content |
Item is a sailing canoe. It is 15.8 m long and is painted in black and red. This canoe is a replica of Bill Reid's famous Lootaas (Wave Eater) canoe. The original was created from 1985-1986. After its successful 1987 journey along traditional Haida trading routes, four fibreglass copies were created. Reid was known to call these replicas his "Tupperware fleet". Two of the canoes were commissioned by the Canadian Museum of Civilization. They were painted in inverse colours, eventually becoming known as the Red Raven and Black Eagle canoes. [Information taken from "Bill Reid and the Haida Canoe"] Dr. George MacDonald, Former Director of the Canadian Museum of Civilization and Former President of the Bill Reid Gallery, later described his and Reid's plans for these canoes. "My original intention in commissioning the two canoes from Bill Reid [was] to use them in tandem, with a cedar plank deck between them[,] as they would have been in ancient times when dancers from a guest village performed at their arrival at the village of their hosts. The famous photographer, Edward Curtis, records just such a dance stage rigged between two war canoes at Ft. Rupert in 1914. Bill did many plans and sketches [for] how the stage would be fitted to Red Raven and Black Eagle[;] the concept was never realized. Instead, each of the canoes was used take visitors to CMC on a tour of sites between Parliament Hill, the Canadian War Museum, and the CMC site in Hull." |
Level of description |
Item |
Collection |
Pancerzewski Collection |
Parent Catalog Number |
2005.4.1 |
Credit line |
Canoe: In Co-operation with the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Avec la Collaboration du Musée Canadien des Civilisations. |
Ownership |
Simon Fraser University Bill Reid Collection |
People |
Reid, Bill |
Subjects |
Canoes |