Cameco Learning Studio

Join Remai Modern’s Lyndon J. Linklater as he facilitates a beginner birchbark basket-making workshop. Linklater was taught how to work with birchbark by Ojibway Elders in Northwestern Ontario where he grew up. He witnessed and assisted in the making of birchbark canoes and baskets. 

In the past, First Nations communities utilized birchbark for many practical reasons, including transportation using birchbark canoes. Typically, canoes were smaller. However, during the fur trade era, birchbark canoes were made much larger to carry more goods. These canoes could easily be 40 feet long and six feet high, with capacity to carry up to five tons. It would take four men to portage with these huge canoes throughout the Canadian wilderness. 

Birchbark was also used to make baskets. Different shapes and sizes of baskets were used for laundry, food, berry picking and many other purposes. Birchbark was also used to make art by birchbark biting.