Our Heritage Foundation (OHF) deepens its activities in Vieux-Grand-Port by exploring an endangered craft, particularly precious on an island the making of wooden pirogues. For archaeologist Jayshree Mungur Medhi, there’s no substitute: even if you’re lost at sea, you’re more likely to come back with one of these boats, because they always get back afloat! Discovery. Dominique Bellier
In Mauritius, the trade of marine carpenter is handed down from generation to generation, always on the job, in the workshop. Vocational schools do not seem to have developed specific training courses for wooden shipbuilding, as most of the buildings that populate our shores are now made of synthetic resin…
The fact is, today’s wooden boats are expensive, but that doesn’t stop some enthusiasts from swearing by this noble material and putting their heart and soul into a boat built in the purest tradition of marine carpentry. But it’s a long way from making a living from this craft. There are only a dozen or so workshops left on our coasts, and the next generation is not always guaranteed…
Vieux-Grand Port lost one of its great shipbuilding figures last month. Omar Hoota, better known as Monsieur Pop, built wooden boats of all sizes and functions throughout his life. At the age of 66, he no longer had the health to work with wood, but he left this world with the serenity of having passed on his secrets and the tricks of the trade to his two sons, Rahim and Ahad. The family was to lead the first marine carpentry training course, scheduled for July and then postponed, so that this know-how and the passion it generates could be passed on to other craftsmen.
Spread over 6 days, this initiation will involve Rahim and Ahad giving demonstrations and teaching the trainees how to repair a pirogue. It will also enable them to familiarize themselves with the complete construction of a dugout canoe on scale models, which will only lack the volume to accommodate passengers. Funded by the Mellon Foundation, this project, orchestrated by Jayshree Mungur Medhi, aims to document this Mauritian know-how and add an activity to the program of guided tours offered by OHF to walkers.
A breath from the tree
Artist Alix Le Juge has combined her two passions in a book: the sea and drawing… After following the step-by-step construction of a pirogue by Mahébourg’s last remaining marine carpenter, Gervais Lamarque, she tells the story of this craft in the form of drawings accompanied by descriptive texts. Un souffle de l’arbre is the title, because this is the carpenter’s desire: to give the woodwork the breath it needs to sail the ocean!
