by Iori Miller
I have been at this editor job for close to two years now. Every time I have to gather the materials for an issue it begins with an anxious moment of, ‘do I have enough material?’ It is interesting to me how an issue comes together.
This issue began with Sandy Richardson’s suggestion that we recognise the passing of Hugh Stewart. I had to think at that point, how often do we devote space in Nastawgan to the passing of iconic people in the paddling community? After consulting some people about past practice I’ve come to the decision that if the individual played a significant role in the WCA then we should recognise their moving on.
In a few words passed back and forth Sandy offered to also share a personal account of what Hugh meant to him, and in that he suggested using some of Hugh’s wisdom in own words. I like how Sandy points out Hugh’s appreciation of the Cultural Custodian. His words brought me back to my teacher’s college days at Queen’s University, with the professors and paddlers, James Raffan and Bert Horwood, and a canoe symposium that generated the book: Canexus – The Canoe in Canadian Culture.
As I read Hugh’s appreciation of wood in a canoe, and how the dominance of synthetic materials in canoes today left him feeling something is being lost, I felt it would juxtapose nicely with an article I’ve had percolating in my head for some time. With the help of a lot of people (especially Matthew Eberly, Bill Ness, and Kelly McDowell), I have put together an article here on how whitewater tripping canoes in our Canadian Culture have evolved since the days of wood-canvas boats. Our country was largely borne from the industry of the fur trade – birchbark hulls evolved to wood-canvas – with today’s canoeing being fundamentally recreational and not at all essential to the Canadian economy. Yet still, I know people who still argue wilderness tripping is best done with wood-canvas boats and wooden paddles.
Somehow this issue came together, Hugh’s reverence for the history and authenticity of a wooden boat balances in discussion against the modern plastics and composites of today’s whitewater hulls. You can choose for yourself which you prefer, and you can spend countless hours around a campfire with the backdrop of Loon calls, arguing for what is the best whitewater tripping boat, or whether paddling in urban environments is important enough to be funded by governments, or what is the best way to organize a car shuttle when a loop route is impossible. For many of us this is very much what makes us feel Canadian.
Our next issue has begun to come together as well with a bit of theme. Look for stories about families traveling to paddle: one family travels across the Atlantic Ocean to paddle the lochs of Scotland, and another family that performs an annual pilgrimage across Canada from British Columbia to Ontario’s lakes, just so that their western-raised children will know the beauty and rhythm of traditional canoe tripping on endless lakes and portages.
THE PASSING OF TWO MAJOR FIGURES IN WCA HISTORY
Two former WCA members who played major roles in the revival and revitalization of the WCA 50 years ago passed away recently. Gord Fenwick died in September 2024 in Newmarket Ontario at the age of 84; Roger Smith died in February 2026 in Rossland B.C at the age of 76.
Gord, as I’ve noted in the past, is the person most responsible for reviving what was in 1975 a moribund WCA. He forced the former executive to call a general meeting and then served as WCA Chairman of a new Board from 1975 to 1977, remaining on the Board as Past Chairman until 1979, laying the foundation for the club as we know it today. Roger was Editor of the WCA newsletter, then called The Wilderness Canoeist, from 1975 through 1977, where he guided the newsletter from being a simple photocopied and stapled format to a tabloid newspaper format that allowed for the inclusion of photographs. Roger then served as WCA Chairman from 1977 to 1979 and on the Board through 1980; he headed the Conservation Committee from 1979 through 1980. Both gentlemen were active in the WCA Outings Programme. (For more information on the early history of the WCA see my article “The Real Beginning of the WCA” in the Spring 2023 issue of Nastawgan.)
With the passing of these two men the WCA has lost two significant elders of the tribe. Rest in peace. Sandy Richardson