Technologies are adopted or rejected, retained or abandoned for a host of reasons, among which, functional and economic suitability are only the most obvious. Other factors, such as heritage and ideology, also play roles in these decisions. Dugout canoes are among humanity’s most persistent technologies, with a history of use extending more than 10,000 years. While many former canoe societies have discarded or replaced them, dugouts remain well-embedded in others. An example of the latter is Imbotero, Guyana, a village of indigenous Warrau people for whom dugout canoes continue to serve as a primary economic tool and means of engagement with their swamp environment. Watercraft ethnography provides a methodology to explore the dugout’s role in the Warraus’ maritime cultural landscape, why and how Imbotero has retained the dugout in the face of intensifying modern, Western influences, and to understand the future of its canoe heritage.