Welcome to my very last blog post for humanities. For this project, we were learning about New France and the people involved. Our driving question was: What did the establishment of New France mean for all the people involved? To complete our final project we had to focus in on one specific group of traders. I chose to focus on the coureurs des bois.
Who Were The Coureurs Des Bois?
The coureurs des bois were independent entrepreneurial French-Canadian fur traders. They were mainly unlicensed traders who would hunt beavers and other animals. Most of them learnt the trades and practices of indigenous peoples and they would trade their goods with them.
For this project, we were asked to make a visual showing the good and bad sides to the people who were associated with New France. My topic was the courier des bois. This is my visual.
The courier des bois had a lot of benefits to their jobs but also a lot of problems. The visual you see above shows both the good and bad sides of being a coureurs des bois. The good side shows money bearing traded for beaver pelts. I chose to show the beaver pelt because at the time, beaver pelts were considered to be gold and were very sought after. the handshake also symbolizes relationships especially with indigenous peoples (at least most of coureurs des bois had good relationships with them) because they mainly traded with them. It also has a sign saying bravery because apparently they had to be brave to do their job because of all the dangers. The bad side shows all the dangers of doing the job. There is a sign saying “warning: bears and blizzards” because they caused a lot of danger to them. Imagine being stuck outside in a freezing Canadian winter sheltered by only a few animal pelts. It also shows a wanted sign because most coureurs des bois did not have a trading license and according to the people in charge, that was illegal. It also shows a skull because there was a lot of death resulting from disease, cold, animals, and people. It also shows a beaver with an x because of the mass hunting of beavers which led to them almost being extinct.
Over the course of this project I learnt many skills and ideas. I was able to go back and practice more of my photography skills that I used to make the background of my visuals. I learnt more about using symbols and arranging them to make an interesting visual. I also learnt about New France and the roles of some of the people involved. I am looking forward to using these skills in future projects.
I also wanted to include a bonus image
No beavers?