Cesar Newashish (1904–1994) was an Atikamekw (First Nations) canoe maker and elder. He was born in 1904 in

Manawan Manawan (named Manouane until 1991), officially named ''communauté Atikamekw de Manawan'' ( French for "Atikamekw Community of Manawan"), is a First Nations reserve on the south-western shores of Lake Métabeskéga in the Lanaudière region of Q ...

, Quebec, a settlement located about 200 kilometres north of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, Quebec. In 1971, he attended the

Mariposa Folk Festival Mariposa Folk Festival is a Canadian music festival founded in 1961 in Orillia, Ontario. It was held in Orillia for three years before being banned because of disturbances by festival-goers. After being held in various places in Ontario for a f ...

as an artisan, and built a canoe there, using the traditional methods of his ancestors: birch bark, cedar splints, spruce roots and gum. Once the festival was over, he then donated the birch bark canoe to the

Royal Ontario Museum The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada. It attracts more than one million visitors every year ...

, where it was still on display as of 2018. His work on building the canoe is documented in the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

documentary called Cesar's Bark Canoe, which was also released in 1971. Cesar Newashish died at the age of 90.

References

1904 births 1997 deaths Atikamekw people First Nations artists Canadian woodworkers Artists from Quebec {{Canada-artist-stub