National Geographic: The Last Trappers by Pat Kane

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National Geographic: The Last Trappers

pat kane

Jun 3, 2022

My first commissioned story for National Geographic (@natgeo), written by John Last. I worked on this piece with my good friend and photographer extraordinaire, Amanda Annand (@amaradah) and edited by the wonderful David Barreda. We spent most of February with fur trappers, educators, youth and elders in Yellowknife, Fort Good Hope and North Bay to learn about the fur industry in the NWT and the people at the front line of an industry that is widely misunderstood outside of Indigenous communities. This will be a tough story for many non-Indigenous people who have a particular perspective of wildlife and their relationship to people.

For the Indigenous trappers that I met and travelled with, there is a fundamentally different worldview based on respect for The Land and the role animals play in economics, culture, food security, warmth, shelter and passing down of knowledge. Trapping here is about more than just fashion and runways, and many would argue that animal rights activism is a form of colonization: the fur industry was created by settlers in the first place, and now being dismantled by settlers.

I invite you to read the piece.

It goes without saying that the people I photographed for this story are some of the hardest working people I've met, and I thank them all for taking me on their traplines, speaking about culture, and teaching me so much.

Notably, I'd like to thank Nathan Kogiak, Chloe Dragon Smith, Robert Grandjambe, Donovan Boucher, Peppie Beaulieau, Francois Rossouw, Shaun Tobac, Wilfred Jackson, John T’seleie, all the guardians, students, elders and staff at Tuyeta Camp and in Fort Good Hope, BushKids, The NWT Literacy Council and ITI/ENR/Justic depts of the GNWT.

With fur out of fashion, Indigenous trappers are endangered
Falling prices, rising costs, and anti-fur sentiment jeopardize a centuries-old way of life.
Nationalgeographic.com

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Pat Kane

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The Globe & Mail: No Place to Grow Old