Craft Forums
American Craft Forums are free online conversations that bring the community together to explore new ways of thinking about craft. Tying into the themes of each issue of American Craft, these discussions feature diverse voices working together to move the craft field forward.
FORUM DETAILS
Woven Through Water: How Boatbuilding Connects Communities and Cultures
This Craft Forum took place Thursday, April 13, 2023
Presented in conjunction with the Spring 2023 issue of American Craft.
Watch the Forum below or visit our YouTube channel.
Look forward to spring and the opening of many of our waterways with a conversation about how water and travel connect us as human beings. Almost every land that touches water has a tradition of boatbuilding or watercraft. How do those skills, traditions, and history—different as they may be—build community and connect us across cultures? Dr. Anton Treuer, an accomplished professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University in Bemidji, Minnesota, and a celebrated author, will guide us through a discussion with Daniel Creisher from The Apprenticeshop, a boatbuilding and sailing school in Rockland, Maine, as well as birchbark canoe maker Jim Jones about the power and history of watercraft.
Participants
Dr. Anton Treuer
Moderator
Dr. Anton Treuer is professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University and author of many books. He has a BA from Princeton University and a MA and PhD from the University of Minnesota. He is Editor of the Oshkaabewis (pronounced o-shkaah-bay-wis) Native Journal, the only academic journal of the Ojibwe language. Dr. Treuer has presented all over the U.S. and Canada and in several foreign countries on Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask, Cultural Competency, Racial Equity, Strategies for Addressing the “Achievement” Gap, and Tribal Sovereignty, History, Language, and Culture. He has sat on many organizational boards and has received more than 40 prestigious awards and fellowships, including ones from the American Philosophical Society, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Bush Foundation, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.
James L. Jones Jr.
Speaker
James L. Jones, Jr. (Wabagoning ziibiing), of the Leech Lake band of Ojibwe, is an artist, jewelry maker, potter, canoe builder, and teacher. Jones has a background in archaeology, culture, and natural resources. His interest in history and archaeology had a major influence on his craft practice using natural objects like: eagle feathers, antler, and turquoise to create historically accurate reproductions of jewelry and artifacts to celebrate the beauty and craftsmanship of his ancestors. Jones started Flowing Creek Crafts in 1992 to provide people with unique gifts and jewelry. Since 2002 Jones has assisted Grant Goltz and Squeedunk Kayaks in making birchbark canoes, starting with a 27’ fur trade birchbark canoe, which was sold to a group who were retracing the historic route of David Douglas, a Scottish botanist who had completed the same trip back in 1836. Jones’ work building birchbark canoes was also featured on the Common Ground segment on Lakeland Television in 2010.
Daniel Creisher
Speaker
Daniel Creisher was born in southern Massachusetts and moved to a farm in Maine as a teen. After working as a teacher in the outdoor education field for many years, he decided that he wanted to learn how to build boats. In 2012, he joined The Apprenticeshop as an apprentice. With an already deep love of watercraft and a formal education in architecture, boatbuilding—its history and design—sparked a passion that only continues to broaden and deepen. Daniel spent several years in classic yacht restoration working on a wide variety of traditional sailing and rowing craft before returning to The Apprenticeshop to work as a youth instructor on the construction of a late 1800s Portuguese sardine carrier.
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