Teachings
Traditional Uses of Birch Bark in Canada
Algonquin First Nations peoples used birch bark to cover their wigwams to stay warm and dry, and ‘birch-bark biting’ was the practice of perforating paper-thin birch bark in the fabrication of containers, artistic designs, and pictographic scrolls the Ojibwa, Cree, and other Algonquin First Nations people once relied on. Birch-bark biting was especially helpful for quillwork to decorate clothing and moccasins, and items such as drums, boxes, pipes and tipis and wigwams.
In addition to canoes, birch bark proved its worth for many other uses including bowls and baskets for cooking, storing, and transporting food, as well as a solid substance to write on or as a canvas on which to paint prior to the mass production of paper and its related products. It could be wrought into twine, rope, and mats. As a construction resource, birch bark was of prime importance to First Nations tribes across Canada.
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THE TRAPPING TRADITION
Before contact, trapping was an integral part of the Indigenous way of life, providing food, clothing and shelter. European fur traders relied on the First Nations to trap and skin the animals and bring them to the trading depots where the trappers traded them for raw materials and finished goods. Eventually, to satisfy this economy, trapping became an end in itself, with extensive trapping putting some species in jeopardy.
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