Page 3 The idea came from me in conversation with Barsby’s Aboriginal Education team early in the fall of 2016. We thought it would be neat to purchase an old, non-water-worthy canoe, cut it in half and have bookcases made for the school. This would honour the Metis and their voyageur history. Barsby’s Aboriginal Education department had previously purchased a bookcase carved by Noel Brown to house the Aboriginal Education books to date, but that bookcase was quickly crowded, as Barsby Aboriginal Education had also purchased a large number of Aboriginal books for the library. (That bookcase was dedicated in Dec. 2016.) So, a second bookcase was needed, and we thought a canoe bookcase would be unique. Unsure that we would be able to find a non-water- worthy canoe, I advertised privately on Craigslist for many months. Finally on Jan. 27, 2017, retired teacher Don McCririck from Comox responded to the ad and sent pictures. His red, 17-foot heritage Grenwood canoe was ideal. He initially thought we would have already found a canoe, but Don was the only person ever to have responded. Barsby agreed on a price, and that included delivery! The next step was finding someone who could cut the canoe and transform it into bookshelves. I was also working at Cedar last year, and Cedar’s woodworking teacher Max Robinson was also an experienced outdoorsman. He agreed to take on the project with the help of some of his senior woodworking students, though he was very reluctant to cut such a beautiful heritage canoe. Rick St. Denis donated the cedar slabs that form the base of the canoe bookshelves. Cedar PAC donated $200 to help with the extra supplies for the project. Thus, Cedar earned itself the half- canoe bookshelf. Robinson agreed with me to utilize as much of the original canoe as possible and to leave the wood patina and paint original. Completing the project came down to the wire, as he was headed to Sweden for a year of overseas teaching, and work progressed intermittently until June. Cedar’s chef Stefane Begin was also experienced at woodworking, and helped Robinson get the two canoe bookshelves finished by the middle of June before he left. We were all very excited when they stood completed in Cedar’s multi-purpose room. Stefane Begin delivered Barsby’s half-canoe bookshelf in June. Cedar is using it’s bookshelf to highlight certain books in a rotation Barsby’s Aboriginal Education department has once again purchased and donated a large number of Aboriginal books to Barsby’s library and our canoe bookshelf is already looking pretty full. We may need another! Funding from Barsby Aboriginal Education came from many Inquiry projects done over the past years. The team in place for the 2016-17 donations was: Donna Flett, Val White, Vivian Aarset, and Valerie Masterman.  Canoe Book Case By Donna Flett