CONFERENCE: Nawi – Exploring Australia’s Indigenous watercraft – http://www.anmm.gov.au/nawi – Conference BLOG: Click Here
DATES: 30 May - 1 June 2012
VENUE: Australian National Maritime Museum
2 Murray Street, Sydney NSW
PLEASE CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO ENLARGE
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I would like to acknowledge and pay my respects to the Traditional
owners whose Country I am honoured to be visiting, and thank the organisers for
inviting me to speak on my experience of making our canoes.
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There are only a few known models of the Tasmanian made bark canoes
throughout the world and there are a few of these models in Tasmanian Museum
and Art Gallery.
In 2007 a group of four Tasmania Aboriginal men built 2 bark canoes out
of stringy bark. One of these canoes was used in a buoyancy test; the other is
on display in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart. These were the
first genuine full size canoes made for about 160 years since the demise of my
ancestors.
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My name is Rex Greeno. I was born on Flinders Island, the largest
island in the Furneaux Islands, a group of islands off the north east coast of
Tasmania. I grew up at Lady Barron, a small fishing village on the southern end
of the island.
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My father was of Italian origin and moved to Flinders Island in 1939
married my mother and had 4 other siblings and he was a professional fisherman for
some 40 years.
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| My father owned a couple of boats and I began my fishing career with him for about 10 years before purchasing my own boats. I was a fisherman for 40 years crayfishing, shark netting, scallop fishing and gar fishing. I retired in 2008. |
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My grandfather was a direct descendant of the straitsmen. They were
early sealers and other seafarers who obtained Tribal women from nearby Tribes
in North East Tasmania.
Nearly all of them married their woman and settled
among the islands. They built a small fleet of boats to hunt seals and also to
gather mutton birds or short tailed shearwaters from the islands as their
yearly staple food.
 
I acquired a book on the early watercraft of Tasmanian Aborigines. It
was after reading it I decided to build a similar canoe.
There were accounts by the French of Aboriginal people in canoes, which
they called Pirogues, up to 20 km off the southern end of Tasmania to explore
the outer islands and rocks for food. At least one was reported to be 7-8
metres in length – the length of
the whale boats used by whalers and sealers at that time.
Because the people in those
days did not have much in the way of suitable tools to carve out canoes they
had to rely on gathering loose bark and tying it into bundles and then binding these
bundles together into larger bundles to form the canoe.
Early explorers noted that they observed bodies washed ashore as
their flimsy crafts, would have been destroyed by the sea conditions of the
area.
Even though there were some flimsy canoes x-rays of models show small
sticks in the centre to form a type of core. So it is likely that full sized canoes would have had
a few thicker curved sticks to aid their construction and to strengthen them.
It was also noted that there were three main areas where canoes were
built out of different materials which were suitable for the local conditions.
Wetlands: In the east to southeastern areas the canoes were constructed out of marsh reeds. These were light in structure as they were used to gather birds and bird eggs around lagoons and small streams.
Stringy Bark Trees: In the south east to southern areas where the weather and sea
conditions can be very treacherous the canoes were built of a sturdier bark from
the stringy bark gum trees.
These canoes would have been bound together with strong sedge made into
a rope – and would also have had a lot of resins mixed with the bark to
strengthen the canoes.
I have fished these areas and it amazes me how these canoes ever got any more
than few hundred yards of the shore.
Swamp Tea Tree: In the south to south western areas where there were lots of rivers
and bays to cross, the canoes were built out of the bark of the swamp tea tree
which is abundant in the swampy areas.
Where reeds were used five long bundles were made and lashed together.
When tea tree and stringy bark was used there was only three bundles lashed
together.
I decided to go with tea tree bark for my canoes and I gathered about a Ute-load of loose tea tree bark from the banks of
the Tamar River, near Launceston where I live.
As the bark from the swamp tea tree was more accessible to me I decided
to use this material in my first attempt to build a canoe. My canoe would be
constructed in a more contemporary style. I would make them of the materials of
my every day life, as my ancestors would have made theirs out of the materials
available to them.
Although my research showed how the canoes were made including their
shapes. There was virtually no information on the actual method used in their
construction.
G A Robinson noted that a group of men would rush into the bushes and come
back in 3 to 5 days later with a canoe so it was obvious that they did not want
anyone to see how they built their canoes.
So I used my 40 years fishing experience and knowledge of building a
boat. I had a rough idea how to build a canoe.
In making my canoes thus far, I have cut the bark into small pieces, and bound them together, so they looked like bricks of bark.
     
I then began to construct the side hulls. Even though these were a lot smaller, they had to be curved to fit the shape of the main hull.
I then fixed narrow strips of bark around each hull at about 10 cm a part; the three hulls were then bound together with strips of bark at each end.
Many people have asked me if the canoe would float. I did not try it but I am confident that it would. As cork is only a bark it floats OK.
It was described by the early explorers that the canoes was propelled by using a pushing rod to move them through the shallow waters and type of paddle which was made by scarping one end of a pushing stick to a flat surface about 5 to 6 center-metres wide.
Cook observed that 2 men in one of his row boats could not catch 2 Aboriginal men in their canoes.
I was very proud of my first canoe.
 
The first canoe that I made was 2.6 metres in length. My second, 3.4 metres (Telstra Art Award & MAGNT) and my third was approx. 3.8 meters (Nation al Art Gallery)
The most recent one was 4.6 metres long and is now in the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.
Here are a couple more examples of canoes I’ve made.
This canoe, my second, went to Darwin which was in the Telstra Art Award in 2010
My grandfather, Silas Milton Mansell, taught me his cultural heritage when I was about 8 years of age so I vowed to teach my son and grandson my cultural experience in making a bark canoe.
When the National Museum of Australia commissioned me to make a canoe for them I took the opportunity to involve my son (Dean) and grandson (Harrison) in the making of the most recent canoe.
This canoe is the largest that I have made it is 4.6 metres in length and it also contains a fire box that traditionally carried the fire from one place to another.
Although Dean and Harrison live in Victoria they travelled to Launceston to help me collecting the bark and the different stages of the canoe.
I sincerely hope that one they will carry on and teach other Aboriginal boys in the ancient art in the making of bark canoes.
When the National Museum of Australia commissioned me to make a canoe for them I took the opportunity to involve my son and grandson in the making of the most recent canoe.
This canoe is the largest that I have made it is 4.6 metres in length and it also contains a fire box that traditionally carried the fire from one place to another.
I sincerely hope that one they will carry on and teach other Aboriginal boys in the ancient art in the making of bark canoes.
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