Joche Carl and Basil Smith, bark builders from Maniwaki, Quebec were next to donate. His most anxious moments came during
the acquisition of 44 canoes from the Heye Foundation’s Museum of the American In- dian in New York. He had learned that the museum could no longer afford to look after this valuable collection, and Kirk began ne- gotiations to buy them for Kanawa. For eight years Kirk negotiated, in compe-
tition with several world museums, includ- ing the Smithsonian. Kirk remembers: “The time came when the Heye Foundation’s board was meeting to make a decision. There were 63 members on the board, the discussion went on and on, and in the end they agreed by one vote to let them go to
Kanawa. I got the message about midnight and immediately phoned my son, David, standing by in New York with two big mov- ing vans, to begin loading. In the meantime, two American congressmen, not wanting the collection to leave the U.S., tried to stop the trucks from crossing the border. I had anticipated this, and already had an import number in place with customs. When Da- vid phoned me to say that they were being held up at the border, I phoned the head of customs and the trucks were immediately waved through!” Kirk’s problems were not over. He still had to find $150,000 to complete the deal.
No Haida dugout canoe
had been carved within living memory
until Kirk Wipper commis- sioned Victor Adams to carve
this canoe for the collection in 1968. Despite being mistakenly paddled
backward on its inaugural voyage (the bow is in the foreground), the canoe help spark a renaissance of Haida canoe carving. PHOTO: MICHAEL CULLEN
CANOE ROOTS n 31
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