Stories

In 1853, a group of voyageurs shipping furs from Fort Edmonton put down their oars in solidarity with one of their crew members. It was an early murmuring of organized labour in the West: not quite a strike, not quite a mutiny, but very much a show of strength and unity.

"Women like Louise and her daughter Marie-Anne did not leave behind letters or journals, and are rarely mentioned in the business records of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Nonetheless, women like Louise and Marie-anne were essential for the economic success of the Company and its trade–making moccasins on an industrial scale, pounding meat into pemmican, teaching men languages and other skills. This shadow workforce was seldom acknowledged by the Company that depended on them."

Comic books, like story-time, are still too often relegated to the realm of “kid’s stuff.” But why stop allowing pictures in books after Elementary school? The marriage of words and pictures can convey stories with an animation and ease other media should envy. So when Gwen L’Hirondelle told us a story of her great-grandfather, Peter Erasmus, we shared excitement at seeing it brought to life in a new way – through comics.