Handcrafted birchbark canoe on display at University of Manitoba

Over 300 hours of craftsmanship went into making this 13-foot birch bark canoe. The bark was sourced from the boreal forest and combined with other materials like spruce root and cedar and over the course of four months that material was fashioned into this traditional working canoe. Building the canoe was Brian Rice's idea. He's a University of Manitoba Indigenous scholar. He's been teaching since 1992 and is getting close to retirement. He says building the canoe was his way of leaving behind a legacy long after he's gone. Rice built the canoe with the help of Denis Gendron, a Métis historian and craftsperson. So when you're taking birch bark, you don't necessarily have to take the tree. You cut a strip down the side and a few strips over and you can actually peel the full bark right around the tree. And if you get a big enough tree, you don't need a lot, you know, if it's long enough. Gendron says he's never built a canoe before and did a lot of learning as he went. He read books and watched National Film Board videos to get an understanding of the process. Although it didn't go for a float today, Gendron says it was water tested. I put it in the water several times to take care of the kinks in it and the problems with it and seeing where the leaks were in the bottom. Because I have three joints that I had to take care of. So I had it out. I didn't go very far because I'm not an expert canoeist. The problem with these canoes is they're round bottom, they're not flat bottom. So you need to know what you're doing. This canoe will be on display at the University of Manitoba's Active Living Centre for years to come. Rice says he learned a lot while building this canoe and he hopes to apply what he's learned to build a bigger canoe that can fit more of his students in it. Mike Arsenault, CBC News, Winnipeg.