The team building a mooseskin boat in the Nahanni is trying to crowdfund an additional $10,000.
Members of the Dehcho First Nations have built a 40-foot mooseskin boat using traditional techniques and hope to sail it through the Nahanni National Park Reserve.
However, extensive rain peppering the Northwest Territories over the past month has set the project back and funds are running low.
“The boat is built,” documentary producer Caroline Cox, who is with the team, posted to Facebook on Monday. “The crew is at Virginia Falls and the heli-sling has successfully gotten the boat below the falls.
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“However, [the team is] falling behind schedule and costs are rising. This has been such an amazing project so far. I can’t wait for everyone to see the film. We just need a bit more support to push through to the finish line.”
The finished documentary, to be titled Nahanni River of Forgiveness, is set to be aired by the CBC.
The new fundraiser seeks to raise an extra $10,000. As of 7am on Tuesday, two donors had collectively pledged $100.
“We’re trying to showcase our story that we can continue to live and put our wet moccasins on the ground and continue to live with the land and have great respect for the very thing that we do,” Dehcho Grand Chief Herb Norwegian earlier told the CBC.
“It’s about imagery, it’s about respect, it’s about spiritualism, it’s about cleansing yourself and showing the world that you know we’re on the road to recovery and we’re doing everything we can to get to that point.”
