What the Canoes Can Teach Us: Unlocking the Wisdom of Ancient Haida Canoes
A public lecture by Stormy Hamar and Jason Rucker from Haida Canoe Revitalization Group (HCRG) as part of the Joan Carlisle-Irving Lecture Series
Friday, Oct 2, 2026
5–6:30 pm with reception to follow
Room 102, Frederic Lasserre Building
6333 Memorial Road, University of British Columbia
The Haida Canoe Revitalization Group (HCRG) studies ancient Haida canoes and uncovers secrets from the past. Join Stormy Hamar and Jason Rucker of HCRG for a public lecture about their search for and documentation of the remaining historic Haida canoes, as well as their efforts to reconnect today’s canoe carvers with the ancestral master carvers.
Stormy Hamar lives in Kasaan, Alaska. He is Haida, of the Kyaanuusalii clan. He was born into the logging industry of Southeast Alaska, and his parents were some of the last A-Frame loggers in the region. Stormy worked in the logging industry for twenty years after graduating from high school in a logging camp. He and his wife raised their children in one of the last family camps in the region. In 2006, Stormy transitioned from logging to cultural pursuits and community well-being. He and his family started a small Native arts business, and later a small museum of local history. He also became a tribal council member for the Organized Village of Kasaan, a federally recognized tribe in Alaska. In 2020, Stormy and his family founded HCRG. With the help of his family and community, Stormy continues his efforts to improve life in the region for people now and in the future.
Jason Rucker has always worked in boats. He served as a boatbuilder, curator of watercraft, ship preservationist, and captain of historic ships at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park for twenty years. He left the park to sail the Pacific with his family, completing a 16,000-mile voyage that took them as far south as Tahiti and north to Kodiak, Alaska. In Alaska, he met Stormy Hamar who introduced him to Haida canoes, and the work of HCRG. Now Jason works with the HCRG on historic canoe projects and dreams of canoes at home in Alameda, California.
Presented with the support of the Indigenous Strategic Initiatives Fund (UBC), the Indigenous Art History Toolkit, Joan Carlisle-Irving and the Audain Chair in Historical Indigenous Art endowments at the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory at the University of British Columbia.
We acknowledge that the UBC Vancouver campus is situated on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam).
Image: Photo from Haida Canoe Revitalization Group (HCRG).
