Source: Detroit River Story Lab
Photos By: Margaret Fornes
U-M Detroit River Story Lab’s Skiff & Schooner program participants flip a sailboat body in the engineering workshop at University of Detroit Mercy.
Twice a week this summer, middle and high school students have been donning matching blue lab aprons, rubber gloves, and safety goggles to work as a team to construct sailboats.
By the end of the program co-sponsored by the University of Michigan Detroit River Story Lab’s Skiff & Schooner Program and the Detroit Community Sailing Center, the students will have created a sailboat from scratch, complete with a sail and name.
The students involved in this program have varying relationships with sailing and the Detroit River. Many have grown up around boats, but have not developed a personal connection with the Detroit River.
There to learn, the students put their skills into practice, sharing their favorite parts of the boat building process. Most students were excited to use drills and power tools, but others were drawn to the resin that would seal the boat together.
A student advisory team from the Detroit River Scholars program, co-sponsored by the city of Detroit and U-M’s College of Literature, Science and the Arts, also attended the event to gain additional experience with maritime activities.
“They give us feedback on these kinds of events and what they gained from being involved with sailing projects,” explains Jordan Irving, director of Detroit River Scholars program, a one-week UM-sponsored summer program organized by Detroit River Story Lab.
Harry Jones, president of Detroit Community Sailing Center, and University of Detroit Mercy fabrication instructor Thad Lindsay, a long-time partner of U-M’s Detroit River Story Lab, work closely with the students, teaching them to handle a variety of tools and materials such as planers, hand saws, drills, and epoxy resin.
Jones and Lindsay create an atmosphere of fun for the students, pushing them into friendly competition and increasing their comfort with the materials by asking whose planer can create the longest wood shaving or by referring to the epoxy resin as peanut butter.
“This is a very powerful experience for students,” says Irving, watching the students talk and laugh as they smooth out the sides of the boats and patch holes with epoxy.
Students also heard from guest speakers Hadassah Greensky, an indigenous artist who frequently speaks about her connection to the River and how it influences her art, and Jamon Jordan, the historian for the city of Detroit and lecturer for U-M’s Semester in Detroit program.
Their narratives, although different, highlighted for students how important the Detroit River has been historically and how people engaged with the river during periods of war, peace, revolution and resistance.
Greensky’s stories focused on the cultural importance of the river to the Anishinaabe people, explaining the history of Belle Isle and Peche Island along with wild rice and lake sturgeon, two dietary staples that were once abundant in the river. She also delved into stories of conflict that occurred between the Indigenous tribes and the French and English colonizers that settled the land in the early 1700s.
Jordan spoke about how wealthy landowners came to the area and brought the practice of slavery to the region, impacting the ways of life and autonomy of Black and Indigenous populations for centuries to come. He shared stories about the bold rebellion and resistance to the practice of slavery in Detroit, and discussed how the river became central to the underground railroad and many people’s journey to freedom.
“The river was the center of Native American life before anyone else even thought about showing up,” Jordan said. “And over time, the river became the center of freedom for people who were enslaved.”
