The Class(y) Umiak
Posted on June 18, 2007, by admin.
Filed Under Pacific Coast, Community, 7 Generations |
On Saturday, June 2nd my teacher Francine Adams, myself and 29 other eighth graders from the Portland Waldorf School (PWS) as well as seven staff from Trackers NW arrived at Cedar Grove Farm, a permaculture farm outside of Port Orford, Oregon. One of our tasks was to build an umiak, a traditional Inuit whaling boat, with instruction and help from Ernie, Kiliii, and Thaddeus from Ancestral Lifeways. The owner of the farm, Rick Hazard, provided the Port Orford Cedar that was used in the making of the boat.
Most of the PWS 8th grade class has gone to school with each other for eight years. It is a school tradition that the eighth grade class take a trip at the end of the year before many of them leave for different high schools. Tony Deis, from Trackers NW, offered to put together and lead our trip. Through his connections, we were able to find people to host and to teach us how to build an umiak.
When we got to Cedar Grove Farm, Ernie, Kiliii and Thaddeus had already prepared the wood and assembled the floor frame of the umiak. It was late in the day, so after setting up camp, eating and having the first of our nightly campfires, we went to sleep.
The first day, twelve people worked on the umiak. We lashed together the frame of the boat and helped Ernie make the tiller. Twelve other people went harvesting in the tide pools and six worked with Rick on the farm.
On Monday we went to the Cape Blanco Lighthouse and took a tour. Back at camp in the afternoon, we calculated how much work was left in order to finish the umiak and the paddles that went with it. It was a large amount, so ten people were assigned to spend all of their time working on the umiak and paddles. While we were working on the boat that afternoon and all day Tuesday, the others were harvesting mussels, making crab pots, cooking meals, and cleaning.
On Wednesday, the umiak was ready for its maiden voyage. We took it to the town of Bandon which is next to a very sheltered part of the ocean. After splitting into two groups, we took turns rowing the umiak. It worked quite well, although the paddles were really heavy. We paddled around the bay and tried to catch some crabs with our handmade crab pots.
We returned to Portland on Thursday, June 7th. The next Monday we took the umiak out on the Willamette River. A journalist from the local newspaper and a television reporter from KATU came to interview us and, in the case of the latter, film the launching of the umiak.
Part of the boat building experience included composing an accord detailing the future of the umiak. We discussed this at our last campfire and came up with the following:
• Ancestral Lifeways shall store the umiak.
• Ancestral Lifeways shall have free use of the umiak
• When a particular trip involving the umiak seems appropriate, Ancestral Lifeways shall invite the Portland Waldorf School 8th grade class of 2007 on this trip. Ideally this should happen at least every four years.
• When a trip involving the umiak seems appropriate for grade school children, Ancestral Lifeways shall inform PWS of their trip. PWS shall send whichever class they believe would benefit most from the experience. Ideally, this should happen once a year.
• Children from PWS shall assist Ancestral Lifeways with any cleaning and repairs needed for the umiak.
Our hope is that the umiak will foster a relationship between Ancestral Lifeways and PWS that will last for the next 200 years or seven generations.
Our class grew a lot closer on this trip and we learned many new things. We grew more skilled with a lot of woodworking tools, learned about the diverse life in the tide pools and repaired two cob structures, not to mention learning some new songs from Kiliii.
When we began the trip, all of us were worried about the lack of warm showers and toilets. But by Tuesday, most of us had decided that peeing in the woods was much more convenient than finding a bathroom. We tried new foods such as mussels and venison and discovered that rain is one’s worst enemy when you live in a tent.
We had so much fun and are really grateful to all the staff for teaching us so much about the outdoors.
-Taylor E. Holland
Portland Waldorf School 8th Grader
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