A Boat for Crossing Nourishing Terrain

The kayak, or qajaq, as it was originally called in the Inuktitut language, was developed by Inuit, Yupik and Aleut people some four thousand years ago. Kayaks have played an important role in Circumpolar cultures as personal hunting craft; each being built by the person using it to fit their own body dimensions.

This hunting kayak is based on a design from the indigenous Koryaks of Kamchatka, Russia. Traditionally the boat would be comprised of a wooden frame lashed together with sinew and covered in animal skin. This one is built from mostly scrap wood, screws and vinyl tarpaulin. The paddles used with Koryak kayaks were small and handheld, I have replicated this as best I can.

Nowadays, the kayak is a globalised boat design, having been adapted to numerous other environments and places and being constructed out of a myriad of materials. These new designs have transformed the traditional form into something more recreational, less bespoke, and no longer a crucial means of survival.

With this history in mind, I investigated what it would to re-contextualise the ‘globalised’, ‘new’ kayak back into its more traditional form. How might I relate to the water differently in a craft of my own construction? What does it mean to reproduce a design from Indigenous people I have never met? And what might this process teach me about the origins of this technical object?

A kayaker is immediately and intimately linked with the water - conducting a kind of dance with the currents, waves, boat, paddles, and body. This, I felt more keenly in the Koryak kayak than any other boat I have paddled. It is low to the water and because of its short length is very responsive to paddle strokes. It feels like an extension of my body. This boat is as much traversing water as it is traversing history. It pays homage to the originators of the design. It tells a story of reciprocity between the boat, the builder, the water, and the food found in it.

This is a boat for crossing nourishing terrain.