March 30, 2023 (10am to 12 noon)
Although remembered for its material exchanges, this talk will explore how the fur trade was also predicated on musical exchanges and soundways among its diverse participants. Extensive archival and museum-based research reveals the confluence of musical cultures that intersected and developed in and around the trading posts, in the canoes, and on the portages, including Indigenous music, voyageur songs, and instrumental dance-music from the fiddle.
Daniel Laxer earned his PhD in History from the University of Toronto and works as a researcher in the Negotiations and Reconciliation Division in Ontario’s Ministry of Indigenous Affairs.
