Subject: [Next Stop, Cuba !]
Lisa Krone Mella
Caribbean Compass Article

In May last year while at anchor in Trellis Bay, Tortola, the celebrated Carib canoe Gli Gli was run over by a ferry making its return run from Bellamy Cay. A large portion of Gli Gli's bow was ripped away and the ensuing repairs have been extensive and costly. The fact that Gli Gli's dugout hull, once a single towering tree, began its journey over 130 years ago as a growing gommier sapling, meant a trek back to the rainforest of Dominica for more of the same strong wood.

Despite requests from Aragorn Dick-Read, one of Gli Gli's builders, as of press time compensation still has not been forthcoming from the ferry's teen-aged driver or his employers, and the cost of repairs has grown over US$8,000. Aragorn has had to rely on the generosity of friends such as John Smith of Mermaid of Carriacou. John, while "down north" from Carriacou, sailed into Trellis Bay recently and stuck around to lend his expertise in traditional wooden boat repairs free of charge.

Gli Gli has always been a project to bring people together. It started as the life-long dream of Jacob Frederick to build an authentic Carib canoe, as a way of symbolically and practically reuniting isolated Caribs spread across the Caribbean islands and South America . Jacob is a Carib artist from Dominica , who has twice been elected to the Territory's ruling Carib Council. His strong sense of Carib identity is central to his paintings and sculptures, which often depict ancient Carib mythology as well as aspects of Carib life today. After Jacob and Aragorn, a Tortola-born artist, forged a friendship, they realized this dream together with the help of Dominican canoe builder Etien "Chalo" Charles and many more Caribs and other helpers.

The canoe's construction began in early December, 1995. Three weeks' work in the Dominica rainforest followed. A gommier tree was felled, then carved in situ using methods typical of modern Carib canoe-builders in which the chainsaw is as important as the hand adze. Once carved, it took two days for 40 people to haul the canoe down to the village of Salybia .

The next phase of construction involved "opening" the canoe. The canoe sat, weighed down with rocks and doused regularly with water. The heat of the sun and the weight of the rocks inside helped the wood to warp outwards and downwards.

The process climaxed at the end of March 1996 when fires were lit on either side of the canoe, allowing it to open considerably. The next day, boardage was applied to add freeboard and the first ribs screwed in to keep the hull open. At the end of this stage Gli Gli was transformed, with rails measuring approximately four feet in height and a beam of almost six feet. Throughout that summer work continued, fitting out the canoe with its mast, rudder, oars and seats. Measurements were taken from a traditional Carib sail and a scaled-up version made for Gli Gli. At 35 feet long, she is the largest Caribbean log canoe to have been built in living memory.

In 1997 Gli Gli made a historic voyage, stopping at many islands en route from Dominica to Guyana , and visiting Carib communities and historical sites.

It is hoped Gli Gli's next emissarial port of call will be Cuba . That is, if friends like John Smith continue to give freely of themselves because they believe in the importance of community and continuity.

Lisa Krone Mella

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