Why Canoes Still Matter

As mankind made its march around the globe, early humans developed one of the most important inventions in our history: the humble canoe. It's a fairly stunning thought: Early man, of meager cognition and accustomed to competition among rivals for resources, formed groups that cooperated at the degree required to design and make the first canoe and depart home with neither navigation equipment nor a notion to return.

Even as societies came and went, countless independent refinements produced similar designs. Take as proof a pair of early arrivals to North America: the Vikings, who arrived in what's now northeast Canada, and the Polynesians, who landed in southern California. Both used different-sized but similarly-designed canoes.

All this makes the canoe an example of how long-lasting technology should not only solves a very essential problem—how to cross an expanse of water, for example—but should also be iteratively refined. So what can we modern humans, with all of our rapidly advancing technologies, learn from some of the oldest tech on Earth? Quite a lot, according to Will Meadows.

As part of a Thomas Watson fellowship, Meadows spent a year circling the globe building traditional canoes with the few remaining wayfinders who pass knowledge by word of mouth alone. Now he's continuing the journey and documenting his findings for National Geographic. Meadows calls the canoe "humanity's vessel," and I wrote him to find out why.

Motherboard: Tell us how your interest in canoes started.  What attracted you to them?
Will Meadows: The canoe for me is the perfect metaphor of creativity, nature, and one's own freedom in harmony. When you paddle a canoe, you are working, but so is the river and the vessel. I like those kinds of harmonies and I think that traditions where we are an integral part are our vessel and reveal many important lessons.

You talked about a canoe meme. What is that? 
The cultural genes, or memes, of canoe traditions are important on our planet, which is the vast majority water. Memes are ideas passed down through learning in human culture, and there is no doubt that the canoe meme is spread far and wide on our planet.

One of the most beautiful aspects of the global spread of world traditions is that locality is so different in different parts of the world that we can see the idea develop in an entirely new form. Reeds can be bundled into a boat in the Andes with a very similar form and function as reeds bundled in Ethiopia or massive dugout/plank canoes in New Zealand.

Gravity, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and the laws of nature work the same all over the world, but the material, style, uses, and needs of humans vary in every place. Just like the genetics of mankind is almost identical in our raw material, the manifestations are brilliant and diverse, given our adaptation to the diverse environmental conditions of our relatively hospitable planet.

For me, it is beautiful to see this familiar idea, to make a floating vessel, manifested and created by people all around the world using what they are given. It shows me human beings have the important things in common, but at the same time use their creativity, sense of place, to expresses themselves uniquely.

Who are wayfinders, and why are they disappearing?
"Wayfinder" often refers to celestial navigators in the Pacific Ocean cultures, who use the stars and other natural cues to navigator their vessels between islands in the massive ocean. This tradition, one of the most complex and rigorous to have manifested in human culture, is extremely vulnerable because almost no traditional vessels exist today, and changes to traditional economies make it difficult for this knowledge to be passed on. A few still exist in islands like Tuamako and among Maori and Hawaiian peoples, who have revitalized the traditions.

Yet, the word wayfinder also tells us about indigenous masters of these traditions around the world who have messages of human culture, about different ways of living, that are rapidly disappearing as well. The more our traditions and stories disappear the more difficult it will be to find our way, even if we have more access to money, information, and technology, we may have less access to ourselves.

Would a wayfinder in a place like Tuamako agree take you on as an apprentice? Or is there a cultural boundary?
Common interests shatter our boundaries. Arriving in a new community is always difficult because of language, levels of acceptance, and so many other factors. In most communities, if you show up ready to provide value, ready to work, and ready to be humble and accept what you are taught, than you are accepted.

If you show with a sense of humor, a willingness to be treated like everyone else, and some good stories, you'll make lots of friends quickly. Often the process of being accepted by a teacher, in canoe building or anything you want to learn, can be a part of what you are meant to learn.

What does the canoe inform us about tradition?  About technology?
Traditions survive largely based on need and viability. The canoe is a perfect example, being an art form and an interesting tradition, but ultimately a vessel for economies and cultures. The canoe is still useful to people all around the world because it is such a great idea. That idea has been great for tens of thousands of years and is great all over the world. Even in place with the most technological advances, it is still awesome to get out and paddle.

An important thing to remember about traditions and technology is that when it is good, it is good. There is no point in doing something you don't enjoy, don't find meaning in, or don't find useful. The canoe still has bits and pieces of these worths. We are combining many traditions, old and new, in our lives daily, from the way we treat each other to the way we get to work, to the way we eat, or what we do at work.

You might ask, do I find meaning, do I enjoy it, is it worth while? Chances are you already ask that, and drop things if the answer is no. The canoe survives because there is a lot of worth, even today.

Does a tradition die if people stop sharing it?
Yes. But there are a lot of ways to tell a story, and often stories survive in places and ways least expected. It is hard to say how our world will change, but our traditions and stories help us make sense of it. Much like a canoe helps us navigate down a wild river, or a vast ocean.

Can you share with us a story from your work and travels that stuck with you, or maybe revealed something to you (about yourself, about all of us)?
In Zanzibar, my teacher Mponda showed me how to adze. His motion looked so simple but I just couldn't get the wood to cut smoothly and easily like he did. I studied and studied and tried every way possible. I stayed up all night working under the moonlight to try to cut perfectly.

I remember when I finally got it after feeling frustrated so long. My mind was distracted by an old zanzibari story Mponda was telling me, and my arms were just hacking away. When the tale was over, I looked over and I had cut the wood perfectly. "Mmmmm, now you are learn!" Mponda said to me. Sometimes, your mind is a distraction to learning, you just need to have faith in trying.

How did you see people work together? Did students get scolded if they messed up?
Learning to make something like a canoe is watch and do. Using a tool like an adze to dig out a tree or learning to bundle reeds, these kinds of things are learned through experience. The teacher or elder in these communities is the provider of that experience. To learn the entire design of one of these vessels can take decades of this subtle experience, learning how to do it without even knowing exactly what got you there but experience.

The process of this type of learning is akin to learning your native language. There are no classrooms, it is just something you did to interact with your community. When a tradition dies and needs to be revitalized, often they try through methodology and class-like setting, but that soon fades. They best way to learn is by doing.