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Who We Are
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Book Excerpts
Sunshine Sketches Trilogy
by Terry Barker
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Terry Barker has been a featured columnist with the Coast Reporter newspaper for the past eight years. His drawings and stories are now available in book form as a trilogy. Together, they provide 432 pages of oral histories drawn from old-timers, yarns that will test your credulity, and ink drawings of interesting and memorable places on his beloved Sunshine Coast of British Columbia.
Here is a sample chapter taken from Vol. III, Last of the Sunshine Sketches:
The Fabulous Voyage of the Orenda (1978)
This is the fabled Orenda, a home-made Douglas Fir dug-out canoe that sailed 4500 miles to Hawaii more than a quarter century ago. Built in Pender Harbour and skippered by Gordie Tocher, a BC folk hero if there ever was one, the voyage attempted to give credence to a traditional Hawaiian belief that North West Canadian Indians were the ancestors of the Polynesians.
But this yarn is best told by Robi Petraschuk, the keeper of the Orenda flame.
Robi owns and operates the Malaspina Ranch Resort, a fabulous 15-acre spread facing tidal flats, between Madeira Park and Ruby Lake, where she preserves and protects the bones of the Orenda. When she isn’t looking after guests, arranging trail rides or tending to her herd of 27 horses, she teaches dancing and stages spectaculars.
“Gordie Tocher’s passion was to prove a cultural link between the Indians of B.C. and the Polynesians” Robi told me. “He visited with the Haida for several years, where he learned the skills of building traditional dug-out canoes. When he built the Orenda he used the ancient tools and replicated the original trappings and gear used in Haida canoes.
“Gordie carved the Orenda from an 800 year old Douglas Fir donated by the City of West Vancouver. It was 300 feet long and nine feet in diameter. He had built an earlier version out of cedar, but it went down off a reef near San Francisco in 1971. It took him two years to whittle the giant Douglas Fir down to its eventual 40 foot length.
“With the blessings of Haida chiefs, the Orenda sailed from Victoria in 1978 for her great adventure.
“The crew consisted of Gordie, Richard Tomkies and Gerhart Kiesel. Gordie was the captain. Tomkies was a friend who came to visit the Orenda when it was moored at Santa Cruz and was promptly roped in to replace Karen Lind, Gordie’s girl friend, who had to drop out after a terrific pounding they took off the Oregon Coast. She was taken away by ambulance and sent back to Vancouver. Kiesel was the only member with any deep sea sailing experience. He acted as navigator.
“My husband, Bill, wanted to go,” Robi concluded, “but I dug in my heels and said, ‘No way you are going on that crazy trip.’ I think he was secretly happy that I quashed it.”
The trip was a nightmare. According to a feature article in MacLean’s Magazine of March 5, 1979, the adventurers had to face 35-foot waves – or, as Richard put it, “sheer terror interspersed with moments of boredom.” Kiesel loved it, his grin growing wider as the waves grew higher.
Gordie was the expedition’s cameraman, recording everything on a 16 mm Bolex. Later he would travel about B.C. with his film, eking out a living by telling his adventures to rapt audiences at $3.50 a head.
“They arrived at Waikiki 16 days ahead of schedule,” Robi said, “where they were given a tumultuous welcome by not only the Native Hawaiians but also by a Maori contingent who had unexpectedly arrived from New Zealand. How did the Maoris know about the Orenda? What did it mean to them? The voyagers never found out.
“Gordie and his crew were given the keys to the city. They were heroes.”
“What happened to the Orenda?” I asked. “How did they get back?”
“The boat was towed back to B.C. by tug,” she told me. “Then Gordie sailed it up to our Malaspina Ranch Resort. It has stayed here ever since.
“Gordie went on the road. He traveled all over B.C., and Alberta, hiring halls and church basements, showing his two-hour 16 mm film to locals for the sum of $3.50 each ($1 for seniors and kids). According to the MacLean’s Magazine article about him in 1979, his jokes were a bit flat and he had trouble threading the film, but he nevertheless enthralled audiences with his incredible yarn.”
“Do you think his belief about B.C. Indians being the ancestors of the Polynesians could be true?”
“It caused a lot of controversy in its day,” Robi said. “But new studies of genetics have revealed that the Polynesians actually came from Asia – as did our own Native people. But so what? Thor Heyerdahl was wrong too, but that doesn’t detract from the heroism of Kon-Tiki. Even if the Polynesians didn’t come from B.C., Gordie’s voyage was a great achievement.”
“What about the other crew members?”
“Gerharrt Kiesler lost his life on another adventurous trip to Hawaii. He and a university student tried to make the voyage in a small laser boat. They both drowned. Richard Tomkies, however, still lives at Middlepoint with his lovely wife, Valerie.”
“And Gordie?”
“Gordie Tocher had a heart attack and stroke a few years ago. He is partially handicapped. He lives in the English Bay area of Vancouver with his partner Jan. Jan is a designer of exotic wallpaper and has been with Gordie for over fifteen years.”
My last question was about the Orenda.
“Why isn’t it in a museum?”
“A lot of people ask about that, but Gordie is following the Haida custom that when a vessel has finished its useful life it should be allowed to return to the elements. So the Orenda will stay in my corral, where it visits with our horses, maybe dreaming of ocean voyages, until it has gone back to the soil.”
The books cost $19.95 Cdn each, incl tax and P&H. Phone the author-artist Terry Barker at (604) 885-0278, or send him an e-mail at Tbarker@dccnet.com. You can also buy the books online at the Suncoast Arts Marketplace site.
If you would like to read more about the history behind some of the Sunshine Coast's both best and least-known buildings and places, be sure to visit the Sunshine Sketches listing in Bigpacific.
