Wayne Price, Ted Hart, James Hart, Zachary James and Ryan Barber crewed canoes to the 2018 Juneau Celebration-a gathering of Southeast Alaska Native peoples who celebrate traditions, identity and customs.
Price, a master carver who crafted the three canoes that left Haines at around 4 p.m. Friday and arrived in Juneau Tuesday afternoon, captained the Jibba, a traditional dugout canoe. Ted Hart captained a Northern Native strip canoe and James Hart captained the Da Ku Tlingit dugout canoe, which was brought to Haines and also crewed by individuals from Yukon.
The journey was James Hart’s third voyage to Juneau for the celebration. “Part of our tradition as North Tide Canoe Kwáan is to really get in touch with ourselves along with getting in touch with our ancestors,” James Hart said.
Hart said they traveled about 20 miles a day, and that conversation was light-hearted on the water. “Usually it starts out pretty chipper and then halfway through everybody gets pretty quiet,” Hart said. “We know we’re in it for the long haul at that point.”
Price spoke to the CVN from his canoe Tuesday on the final stretch of the trip. He said they ran through 30 knot winds Monday, but all of the boats did fine.
Between Haines and Juneau, they camped at Point Sherman and Echo Cove.
“We’re doing great,” Price said. “I’m working on my sun tan.”