Heritage Community Foundation Presents
Alberta Online Encyclopedia

Traditional Life in the Bushland

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Clip Synopsis:

The Heritage Community Foundation, with the kind permission of Terry Garvin, is pleased to present this feature excerpt from the Bush Land People video.

In an area that spans the southern Northwest Territories, as well as northern Alberta, Saskatchewn and British Columbia, traditional hunters and trappers live out the year engaged in the activities that ensure survival in the northwest wilderness.

Clip Transcription:

Spanning a vast area from Fort Rae in the Northwest Territories south to Janvier, Alberta, the sparcely populated bushland includes two cities: Yellowknife and Fort McMurray, as well as small settlements serving as supply centres for outlying bush camps.

Hunters and trappers seasonally travel many miles across the northern landscape from main communities to their hunting grounds, and back. Seasonal and daily routines, social and spiritual life, tools and technology, are all shaped by the need to secure a primary diet of meat and fish.

Life involves catching, dressing, curing, storing, and bringing back food as well as furs and hides, and the production of clothing. People direct most activities towards survival needs, with money acquired from the sale of fish, furs, hides, and crafts supplementing their self-sufficiency.

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            For more on Aboriginal hunters and trappers in Canada’s northwest Boreal forest, visit Peel’s Prairie Provinces.
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