In a new social project from Kawarthas elemental artist Daniel Marlatt, you can dedicate a miniature canoe to a loved one at no cost and release it into a river.
Inspired by nature, Marlatt works across a range of mediums at his Miskwaa Art Studio and Outdoor Gallery, located between Bobcaygeon and Buckhorn in Trent Lakes. He creates unique items from wood and stone and often embarks on major projects in his studio throughout the slower winter months.
Marlatt’s upcoming “Dedicate a Canoe” project takes inspiration from the “lil Red Canoe” project he launched in 2019 that saw him release one-inch miniature canoes down the Miskwaa Ziibi river that flows along his property.
Marlatt began a daily blog at lilredcanoe.blogspot.com about the project and his goal of releasing 99 of the canoes, each of which were each dyed red using wine. He began inviting anyone who visited the gallery to release a canoe, and ultimately created 350 of the mini-canoes over more than two years.
“Not one had been reported found because they were so small, so they would just degrade,” says Marlatt, noting that people began dedicating the canoes. “Word got out and people started coming out and just releasing them for their reasons — some for the loss of a loved one, some for the loss of a pet.”
Marlatt says it was “incredible” to see the response people had after letting their canoes free in the river.
“They were more joyous and happier because it was symbolic of letting something go,” he says. “They see the pain that they’re feeling go down the river. Of course, there were a lot of tears, a lot of crying, but it was a real relief to these people.”
In April of 2022, Marlatt decided to go even bigger and released a foot-long canoe with a message in a bottle. In May 2025 — over three years later — a person named Frank left a message on Marlatt’s blog stating the canoe washed up on the shore of his Little Bald Lake property.
Getting this reminder, along with having other visitors drop by throughout the summer asking about the lil Red Canoe project, encouraged Marlatt to revisit the initiative at a much larger scale. His Dedicate a Canoe project now uses six-inch canoes, providing space for dedications and messages.
The first canoe Marlatt made for the project was dedicated to renowned artist Neil Broadfoot, who was a friend of Marlatt and passed away in 2020. The artists met through the now-defunct Kawartha Artists Group and did a successful show, “The Canadian Shield Through the Eyes of an Artist,” alongside a third artist in 2018.
“We just hit it off right away,” Marlatt recalls of first meeting Broadfoot. “We had a lot of good times together and he would come out here (to the studio) often.”
It takes Marlatt about five hours to hand carve each canoe out of spruce and engrave it though pyrography. The canoes are also burned to create a rustic look and remain all-natural so as not to be harmful to the environment.
Marlatt, who already has a waitlist started for the Dedicate a Canoe project, says there is no cost to participate — with the only obligation being that participants come to the studio to set the canoes free in the Miskwaa Ziibi.
“It doesn’t have to be just in memory of a passing,” he says of a participant’s reason for releasing a canoe. “They can be set free for no reason but that the person wants to participate in the project. Another reason is maybe they’re a young married couple setting out on their life together, and they can put their names and the date on the canoe.”
Marlatt will create the canoes throughout the winter and, in the spring, participants will come to the studio to release their boat on the Miskwaa Ziibi.
“They can look forward to gathering with friends and family,” he says. “A lot of people feel the energy here. It’s the whole experience of setting it free and watching it go, and then just letting that energy being released.”
Given the river’s location close to the Trent-Severn Waterway, Marlatt says there are opportunities for the canoes to be found in a range of locations, and given that they are larger, they won’t degrade as rapidly as the smaller ones.
“They have the potential of actually heading out to the ocean through Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence,” he says. “I’ve had people visit me in the studio who are from England and they even say it might be a possibility it could wash up on the shores of England. You never really know where they’re going to end up.”
In case the canoes are ever found, Marlatt will be adding an inscription that reads “please set me free again” on the back of the canoe so “it continues on its own little journey.”
Regardless of where a canoe ends up and the path it takes to get there, Marlatt hopes there will be healing in the moment of the sendoff.
“It gives me a real warm feeling seeing how it changes people just to let it go,” he says. “They walk away with a sense of feeling a little bit of relief in actually watching it go down the river and being set free. It’s basically setting something free inside them that will give them that sense that things will be all right.”
To learn more about the Dedicate a Canoe project, visit danielmarlatt.com or email miskwaa.art@gmail.com.
