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Replica maker sets up workshop in Yk

Don Gardner spends most of his days creating replica canoes and items for museums, but is soon opening up shop in Old Town to offer work shopping space for youth to build replicas of canoes and traditional flint and bone tools.

Avery Zingel/NNSL photo
Canoe and replica maker Don Gardener builds bows from archival photographs.

During the Old Town Ramble and Ride, Gardner worked away at a birch bark canoe, while two local women who work regularly with hides spoke with animation about tools and scrapers for hide tanning.

Gardner has several arrow replicas from archival photographs, some of which he offered for visitors to launch at a plywood target covered in cardboard.

Gardner is setting up shop in Yellowknife to offer workshops so that youth can interact with natural materials – something Gardner enjoyed doing as a child.

With a degree in archaeology and a visit to Greenland 50 years ago, his interest in building with older materials began in earnest.

He won't use the word “teach” – after all it's not his culture to pass along, he said.

Gardner believes in passive facilitation and experiential knowledge for youth.

“If people had to listen to me about the details, they'd just go to sleep. What we're doing here is to build and experiment with various types of old tools, like birch bark canoes and sinew back bows and skin kayaks from the Arctic region,” he said.

Avery Zingel/NNSL photo
Canoe and replica maker Don Gardener builds bows, flint and bone tools from archival photographs.

Off limits are ceremonial items, said Gardner, who copies a range of flint blades with sinew.

In 1996, Gardner became involved in a Tlicho K'iela project to build a Dogrib birch bark canoe, which now sits at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife.

“Jimmy Bruneau built a canoe for the museum, which we looked at,” he said. “I prefer to be a passive facilitator.”

As a canoe builder, Gardner worked with elders who had watched their relatives and elders build canoes in their youth.

Over the course of two weeks they used knives, axes, wood planes and awls with sharp blades to build a boat and share knowledge.

Gardner came to Yellowknife last fall and has spent time across Canada in communities.

Asked about his connection to the cultures he imitates, Gardner states that in his travels he vets his work with elders.

In replica work, Gardner defers any work requests for cultural replicas where Indigenous peoples are actively working on traditional tools, he said.

His fascination with traditions is becoming familiar with the landscape and all it contains, he said.

In the workshops, Gardner hopes to invite youth to practice with natural materials and build skills, he said.