Nova Craft Canoe was founded in 1970 by Ken Fisher in Glanworth, Ontario. When Ken retired the company was purchased by its current owners in the fall of 1986. Along with Ken’s moulds, the new owners inherited the Nova Craft name and the thunderbird logo.
Ken Fisher’s original logo
he thunderbird features cross-culturally in the lore, legend, and artworks of many North American Indigenous tribes. It is especially significant in the cultural history of tribes in the Pacific Northwest including the Haida, Nootka and the Coast Salish, although it also appears in oral histories of the southwest American Indian, tribes of the Great Lakes and of the Great Plains.
While descriptions of the thunderbird vary according to each unique cultural community, it is universally said to be a being of supernatural size and power. Capable of causing great storms, the thunderbird produces thunder claps by flapping its wings and, in some legends, shoots lightning by blinking its eyes. The thunderbird also appears in myths which explain the occurrence of natural disasters such as floods and tsunamis.
“Thunderbird” by renowned Haida artist Don Yeomans, 1980
As a potent force of natural activity the thunderbird is revered in many Native American cultures. Amongst tribes of the Pacific Northwest it is considered the most powerful of all spirits, earning top spot of the totem pole which symbolizes its great power and dominion in the natural order. Additionally, thunderbird effigies can be found on the cedar war canoes of coastal tribes (shown above).
In 2009 the Nova Craft logo was updated for a more contemporary look. Designed to reflect Indigenous art of the region, the current logo better reflects the reverence for the thunderbird amongst tribes of the Pacific Northwest, and the essential Indigeneity of the canoe.
