Magic Canoe
We accelerate the success of local, regenerative communities that exist in harmony with the lands & waters that sustain us.
“Come into this canoe to explore a supreme, unknown journey that we
are going to take together. I am sure it will be beautiful, because we will
begin to understand one another.” —Wa’xaid, Cecil Paul
At times of great crisis it is stories that help us prevail. Stories of hope, stories of connection, stories about what works. It is stories that can transform how we see the world, and how we engage with it and each other.
Magic Canoe’s mission is to build a bioregional movement across Salmon Nation through storytelling. From the North Slope of Alaska to the shores of California, our interconnected story initiatives work to accelerate the success of local, regenerative communities that exist in harmony with the lands and waters that sustain us.
At the heart of this movement are people at the edges—in places often far removed from centers of power: rural and Indigenous communities whose importance is typically undervalued. But edges are innovative and diverse, holding profound stocks of human and natural capital resources which can lead a bioregional shift towards regenerative practices. After all, it is in the edges where myriad innovations began— off-grid solar, permaculture, microcredit, mobile payments, the Internet, and health breakthroughs to name just a few. Shifting resources and attention to the edges is an essential step in addressing climate change and cascading systems failure.
Magic Canoe supports edge communities in sharing ideas of importance to them. We provide resources to discover stories for and by neighbors connected through purpose and place. Amplifying traditionally under-shared stories and storytellers from the
edge reshapes the dominant narrative in our bioregion towards a future of reciprocity, celebration and local solutions.
Our name and inspiration comes from Wa’xaid, Cecil Paul, a Haisla and Xenaksiala elder who—against enormous odds, and with many partners—forever protected the Kitlope from logging. During this quest, Wa’xaid imagined a “magic canoe,” a metaphysical vessel with room for everyone who wanted to join his journey. Wa’Xaid asked the founders of Magic Canoe, our organization, to keep this idea alive, even after he left on another great journey after his time on Earth.