Watch this documentary about the famous Projet Pirogue!
Watch "Ces canots nés des flammes", a documentary presenting the famous Projet Pirogue!
We are proud to partner with filmmaker Richard Lahaie to present his documentary, "Ces canots nés des flammes". The documentary can be watched online via our new Pointe-du-Buisson Vidéos platform, or directly at the Museum, on Saturdays and Sundays.
The documentary is in French only
The Projet Pirogue was originally the idea of diver and explorer Jean-Louis Courteau. Following the discovery of an ancestral dugout canoe in Lake Papineau, straddling the Laurentides and Outaouais regions, Mr. Courteau came up with the novel idea of attempting to build one himself. He gathered together a handful of people with a wide range of expertises to do something that had never been done in Quebec before: build a real dugout canoe using the same techniques used by the First Peoples.
The Projet Pirogue is more than an ambitious craft project. The idea quickly grew into a full-fledged study in experimental archaeology. For Martin Lominy, the experimental archaeologist in charge, it was the ideal opportunity to put to the test a multitude of documented techniques and theories related to the construction of North American dugout canoes:
“All of this has to be documented, noted down as we go along, because we want to do science. We could just have 'fun' and work, but obviously that wouldn't necessarily give us knowledge, or it would be confined to what's in my head, and that's not useful to anyone else.” - Martin Lominy
The Projet Pirogue didn't end with the launch of the boat. Even today, the project continues to make waves in the world of archaeology in Quebec and North America, inspiring the archaeologists of today and tomorrow.
