Long, long before the much loved recreational activity and sport we know today, with evidence dating as far back as 8000BC, canoes and kayaks were used for transporting people and goods over great distances, fishing and hunting in areas inaccessible by land. They have been vital in exploring deep into vast continental interiors and colonising some of the most distant islands on the planet and played an instrumental part in shaping human history and making the world what it is today.

Throughout history, indigenous groups across the world have constructed canoes out of many different materials and methods.

In eastern Canada and parts of the Northeastern United States, the bark of the paper birch tree was harvested and sewn together around a white cedar frame, with a sticky pine resin pitch used to waterproof the craft. Later a similar technique was used, stretching a canvas over a frame rendered waterproof with varnishes or paints.

In areas with limited access to suitable trees such as Egypt, tightly bound reeds were used to create canoe-like crafts. This access to the Nile and the ability to move goods by water significantly contributed to the development of one of humanity’s first great civilisations.

Arguably one of the most influential canoe construction was the dugout. Carved from one solid tree trunk, they were strong and seaworthy. However, if fitted with an outrigger or even combining two hulls as a catamaran created a stable enough vessel to support a mast and sail. It was these voyaging canoes that allowed the Polynesians to colonise south-east Asia and the Pacific islands as far as Hawaii and New Zealand, hundreds if not thousands of years before the discovery by European explorers.