Observation and then applying what you have seen, makes a person proficient during his learning. Many people may have thought that I was crazy in bringing a man from lower 48 to make qayaqs, but it was one means of fulfilling my dream. Also, I did not want the art of qayaq-making to die with the elders. I wanted our young men to become interested in building qayaqs, and at the same time get our young people to become interested in pursuing to make their qayaqs as a tribe or groups of people. The only thing we need to do is to get the funding for purchasing of the materials.
Supplies needed include yellow cedar, and money for other supplies and tools.
No one should be paid to build these traditional relics, but should be a volunteer project to build for earning your own qayaq, just the way it was done hundreds of years ago. Traditionally, there were many uses of the qayaq that our students can document. Above all, every man that hunted and subsisted in our land, rivers, and seas owned a qayaq. The manhood of our hunters was identified by the use of these qayaqs. The advantages in owning a qayaq are numerous.