K-12 to Adult Fur Trade Education

The richly textured fabric of fur trade society provides material for learning and doing at any age. In character as Lisette Duval Harmon, Lynn Noel offers a full suite of educational and interpretive programs for heritage sites and organizations.

As a professional environmental educator and former interpretation director, Lynn works closely with site managers and educators to tailor each event to educational goals and site mission. For each age and interest group, content focuses on an organizing theme of fur trade heritage. Themes mix and match, often on the fly, to support up to a one-week residency of fully bilingual programming and entertainment, tightly integrated with curriculum requirements and interpretive themes. Pre- and post-visit materials are developed with educators upon request.

Levels K-3: Animals of the Fur Trade (Language Arts/Music)

Show me your beaver teeth! Slap that mosquito! La laine des moutons, c'est nous qui la filaines! Preschoolers and elementary grades sing along in Gaelic, English, French, Ojibwa, and Inuktitut, and act out animal tales from the many cultures of the fur trade.

9/9/2007

Levels 4-8: The Grand Route of the Voyageurs (Geography/Social Studies)

A great chain of rivers and portages connects every major city in Canada by canoe. Retrace the Voyageurs' Highway as Lisette and Daniel Harmon paddled it in the 1820s, up the Ottawa from Lachine Rapids in Montreal through the Great Lakes to Fort William. Rendezvous with the Athabasca brigades from across the Rockies, and carry a thousand pounds of trade goods across the infamous nine-mile Grand Portage. Lisette divides her greenhorns into hands-on paddling brigades, with a song or a true story for every stop on the map.

5/19/2006

Levels 8-Adult: Women in the NorthWest Company (History)

Were there really women voyageurs? What was it like to be one? Lisette's biography traces a personal line through historic events, from the discovery of the Pacific and the corporate merger of the fur empires to the coming of the Industrial Revolution and Canadian Confederation. A feminist retelling of the traditional legend of Lac Qu'Appelle grapples with social issues of teen pregnancy, racism, and abortion as documented in Daniel Harmon's journal, while framing the real Lisette's decision to return with her husband to his homeland as the courageous act of a heroic woman.

5/19/2006

Experiential: Paddling Songs for Great Canoe and York Boat

C'est l'aviron qui nous mène, qui nous mène! Learn to feel the rhythm of French and Gaelic work songs in your arms and back, changing tempo from whitewater to flatwater and choosing meter for a paddle vs. an oar. For sites with boating programs, we can take these French and Scots songs out on the water in the working boats where they belong, to feel how a good gouvernail or chanteyman kept the boat trim and on course with a song. Organize a canoe parade for your river festival, or prepare a singing brigade with a voyageur's salute to stage your arrival ceremony with panache!

9/9/2007

Theatre: La Chasse-Galerie/The Devil's Canoe

This magical story is the great-grandpère of voyageur folktales. A solo retelling can involve a participatory audience on the fly, or we can rehearse a group of interpreters for a full cast performance of improvisational interp theatre. The script (English only, so far) is just the starting point for a wild ride from your site to Old Montreal and back again.

5/19/2006

Participatory: Rendezvous Songs and Dances

"I have drinking songs for mesdames and love songs for messieurs. Anglais ou français, c'est a vous--you choose!" Lisette strolls the tables at a feast or festival, leading guests in traditional chansons à répondre and pub songs. After dinner, the audience is invited to join in a Paddle Dance and other simple dances popular in the period. If musicians and dancers are available, Lynn can call contra and English country dances and provide a turlutte (mouth music) challenge to local stepdancers.

5/19/2006

Training: The Arts of Living History

"How did you learn to do all that?" Standard seasonal interpretive training teaches techniques of guided walks, house tours, prop talks, craft demos, and first- vs. third-person roleplays. Schools use these methods both with teachers and with students. Sites add drama and music with skilled volunteers/staff, special events, community music programs, and interpretive theatre. Experiential elements come from overnight programs, hands-on activities, and sponsored trips--and from handcrafting clothing, food, and accoutrements.

Lisette Duval uses all of these tools of the trade and more. For well…

5/19/2006