CANADIAN GUITAR

A special guitar built from a patchwork of Canadian history, tells a unique story of Canada.

CBC radio host Jowi Taylor and master Luthier George Rizsanyi have realized a decade old dream to build a six string “nation” guitar out of bits and pieces from historic sites. They collected wood, bone and metal, from every corner of the country. The guitar will make its debut in Canada Day Celebrations in Ottawa on July 1st.

“The Canadian Guitar” is a one hour documentary that follows the progress of the guitar and visits several of the sites that have contributed pieces to this patchwork history. Every piece tells its own story.

The wood forming the front of the guitar comes from the Golden Spruce of Haida Gwaii, the Queen Charlotte Islands. The tree was a 300 year old mutant evergreen with golden needles, but that wasn't all that made it special. According to Haida legend, the tree embodied the spirit of a little boy who became rooted on the spot after defying his grandfather.

The tree was famous and everyone wanted to protect it, however, in 1997, a vandal took a axe to it. It has been lying in forest, untouched, ever since because the Haida did not want to disturb the spirit. But when Jowi Taylor presented the idea of the guitar, the elders agreed to offer a piece of the tree so that the story of the Haida, and the importance of trees to Haida culture, could be told nationally.

From Newfoundland, there is a piece of wood from the Christmas Seal, a boat that functioned as a floating TB clinic to outport communites in the 1950s and 1960s. We learn about the famous Captain Peter Troake who managed to cajole worried villagers into coming aboard the boat for a check up and x-ray.

From Toronto, an old seat from Massey Hall has become part of the guitar. We tell the story of a grand old concert hall with fascinating architectural idiosyncracies.

Justin Trudeau tells us why he donated a canoe paddle that once belonged to his father, and in Montreal, we visit Canada's oldest bagel factory. The Fairmont Bakery donated a bagel paddle embedded with the lingering odor of sesame.

A piece of the St. Boniface Museum recalls the early French Canadian settlers who centered their community around a convent that is now the oldest building in Winnipeg.

The guitar also reveals some untold black history in Quebec, as it takes us to the community of Saint Armand near the Vermont border, where it is believed there was once a black cemetery and slaves buried beneath a famous rock.

A piece from Halifax's Pier 21 has special significance for Luthier Rizsanyi. He came to Canada as a Hungarian refugee fifty years ago, and passed through Pier 21 when he arrived. Pier 21 was an immigration center for a million people who entered Canada via the port of Halifax.