Listening to the Fur Trade: A New History of its Music, Dances, and Ceremonies

Presenter: Daniel Laxer (author)

“As fur traders were driven across northern North America by economic motivations, the landscape over which they plied their trade was punctuated by sound: shouting, singing, dancing, gunpowder, rattles, jingles, drums, fiddles, and – very occasionally – bagpipes. Fur trade interactions were, in a word, noisy. Daniel Laxer unearths traces of music, performance, and other intangible cultural phenomena long since silenced, allowing us to hear the fur trade for the first time.” Come and learn about a unique aspect of the fur trade as Daniel Laxer presents in word, image and song, his discoveries. 

Dr. Daniel R. Laxer graduated with his B.A. in History and Music from the University of Alberta and went on to study histories of music and sound in the fur trade for his M.A. at York University and Ph.D. at the University of Toronto. He has published in numerous academic journals such as Ontario History, The Journal of Canadian Studies, and Material Culture Review. His newly published book is part of the Early Canada / Avant le Canada series of McGill-Queen’s University Press. He currently works as a historical researcher for the Negotiations and Reconciliation Division of Ontario’s Ministry of Indigenous Affairs.

Copies of Daniel’s book Listening to the Fur Trade will be available for purchase at the event. Special price for the evening $35.

PLEASE NOTE: While this is a Museum program, it will be presented in the upper gallery of the Art Centre.