Selected Film
The 2011 discovery of a moss-covered dugout canoe, hundreds of feet up an Alaskan mountainside (miles from water), prompts a team of archeologists and culture bearers to reevaluate government management of Alaska's Tongass National Forest. While investigating the site, researchers unveil a deeper understanding of traditional Haida canoe construction methods, land loss, and the relationship between ecological health and human prosperity. Discovered in April of 2011 by a logging company employee, the canoe lies within meters of countless other canoe building sites, each cedar stump offering evidence of the Haida people's world reknown canoe craftsmanship. Using LIDAR, photogrammetry, GIS, and modern collection techniques, the team of historians and anthropolgists work under the guidance of Stormy Hamar and Stephanie Hamar, directors of the Haida Canoe Revitlization Group and sole curators of Kasaan Arts, Museum, and Canoes. This 19-minute documentary highlights the role that old-Growth Cedar forests play within Alaska's community health. The rapid loss of Cedar forests, and removal of National Forest safeguards, such as the 'Roadless Rule', threatens to destroy more than just trees. The canoe's discovery reminds policy makers that human and environmental health are explicitly linked.
Duration: 00:19:15
Country of Origin: United States
Language: English
Director(s): LUKE Forrester HOLTON
Writer(s): LUKE Forrester HOLTON
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