On a Friday afternoon in early March, Justin and I flew out of Vancouver’s regional airport, leaving the city skyline behind fast. Below, waves crashed against the coast. To the right, mountains, small towns, fishing boats. Further north, snow-capped peaks.
The people on board felt more like neighbours than strangers. A quiet familiarity, the kind that comes from living close together.
We were heading somewhere with real weight to it. A small town, rich with history and culture. We popped out of the low cloud cover swaying side to side in the small prop plane and touched down onto the single runway in Masset. We walked out onto the tarmac and into the single-room airport. A handful of flights in and out each day, at most.
Inside, friendly faces. A few I recognized from documentaries I’d watched about the region.
Cal met us at the airport, vice principal at the local school and our first connection to Masset. Over the week ahead, he became something more than a familiar video call face. He was our guide who, along with introducing us to members of the community, took us north along the long spit of land in his old Toyota, took us by boat across the channel to a place that earned its silence, old totems standing in the trees, culturally significant in ways that words can’t transcribe.
We were also pulled into their basketball culture, which is something truly special. From classes during school hours to pickup runs several times a week, the game is ingrained in the society. It connects generation to generation, and community to community. Multiple large tournaments a year bring together groups from across the region, the Raven Clan, the Eagle Clan, and others. They compete with intensity and with respect. If you know how to play basketball, you have a headstart in making friendships here.
Across the road from the school’s front doors stands a tsunami tower. A lumbering concrete and steel structure, roughly 35 feet tall, two staircases on either side as an escape route when high water comes. If you want to understand how deep basketball runs in Masset, look at what they decided to install underneath the roof of that structure: two high-quality hoops, glass backboards hanging from the steel above. That is the space we intend to transform, a cultural basketball gallery that will serve not just the school but the community outward.
Jaalen Edenshaw is the artist we’re building it with. A man of many talents, and a basketball lover. He invited us to his carving shed to talk through what the art might look like and the stories it might tell.
When we arrived, he wasn’t there yet. We introduced ourselves to a friend already working inside on his own projects and waited. Then Jaalen showed up with another friend, Bonehead.
Jaalen had been working on bentwood boxes. Various shapes and sizes, at different stages. A bentwood box is a traditional container and its construction is more intricate than it looks. A single long narrow piece of wood. Precise cutouts at the corners. Steam applied until the wood yields then bent, the corners locking into each other as though they were always meant to. The result is seamless. I was more curious than I probably let on. I enjoy woodworking, but nothing I’ve done could compare.
I walked over to introduce myself to Bonehead. A large man. Big bearded. He shook my hand firmly and didn’t let go, looked me up and down, and said: yeah, I don’t think you got it, with a laugh. I laughed and let it go. I asked him about his work. Somewhere in the back and forth we landed on northern Saskatchewan specifically, and that was enough to build something on. He took me outside to show me around.
He showed me the large logs waiting to be milled, or turned into totems someday. Old boats nearby, some destined for salvage. Inside the woodshed next to the main building, an old dugout canoe hung from the roof. One of the logs outside was estimated to be around 700 years old. Hard to imagine. You could feel it standing there with these men that they respected and revered the large fallen timbers.
What I saw in that shed said everything about Masset. The social nature of art, basketball, fishing, storytelling and nature.
Along with us on this trip was a group of students from Carleton. And their professor, Rob. They’d been coming to Masset as part of a business course Rob teaches at Carleton University. Rob also coaches the Carleton Ravens, a storied program, so there’s always a basketball angle to their trips whether he plans it that way or not.
The students were all a pleasure to be around. Working with young people over the past couple summers has given me a real appreciation for what that generation has to offer. An odd reflection as a 35 year old.
We spent the remaining days together, the students, Cal, local youth, and our friend Mitra from Vancouver, taking part in events at the school, running a design session for the art that will make up the gallery. We got out into the nature around Masset too. The weather treated us well for that time of year, which felt like its own small gift.
Justin and I both left with an immense feeling of gratitude. And we’re already looking forward to going back in August to finish what we started, and bring some new life into that structure across from the school.