| Description | Model made by the Kawésqar 'canoe' people, of a traditionally designed craft, made from three strips of tree bark [probably Nothofagus betuloides], pierced and stitched with natural plant fibres, or whale fibres. With two paddles and a steering oar. An accompanying note by Martin Holdgate states that: 'The joints and holes in the canoes were caulked with seal grease, stiffened with charcoal, under a lining of split saplings. However in the late 19th century the Alacaluf obtained steel axles by trade with people living further north and began to make wooden canoes with a central dug-out strip cut from a trunk of Nothofagus, giving more freeboard by addition of planks along the gunwhales'.
Collected during the Royal Society Expedition to Southern Chile, by Martin Holdgate. |