This documentary depicts a canoe being built in the traditional manner Cesar Newashish a 67yearold Attikamek of the Manawan Reserve North of Montréal uses only birchbark cedar splints spruce roots and gum With a sure hand he works methodically to fashion a craft unsurpassed in function or beauty of design Building a canoe solely from the materials that the forest provides may become a lost art even among the Native Peoples whose traditional craft it is The film is free of spoken commentary but text appears on the screen in Cree French and English Anthology Film Archives
