Fur Show Revival a Sign of Industry Revival

by Dan Davidson

Trapper Jack Fraser was tired but beaming as the afternoon drew to a close. Besides seeing the revival of an idea he had pioneered over fifteen years earlier, Fraser was also one of the big winners, along with grandson Joey, in the fur quality competition at the 2003 Dawson Fur Show.

The revival, after a nine year hiatus, was sponsored and organized by the Dawson District Renewable Resources Council (DDRRC), and office manager Shelby Jordan got a lot of the public

Jack Fraser holds a coyote pelt. Photo by Dan Davidson

credit for putting the event together, even though she shied away from actually saying anything about it.

DDRRC chair Peter Nagano was enthusiastic about the event, which drew in some 300 people at various times on January 9 in spite of the bitterly cold weather which prevailed in Dawson for most of that week. They came out to see the furs, the crafts, the jigging contest and the fashion show.

“The fur show was excellent,” Nagano said. “It just goes to show the designs and craftwork from all the designers. It’s a huge success.”

One of the things the DDRRC board hoped to do was to promote the idea of trapping as a lifestyle and an activity for youngsters as well as adults.

Nagano recalled going out on the trapline with older members of his family when he was 13 and 14 years old, and he continues to run a line even today.

“We wanted to promote the idea of children ... to get out there and go trapping too, and this is a good promotion,” he said.

“Trapping’s in my family. I picked it up as a kid, and I hope a lot of kids will pick it up too and continue on.”

He sees it as a healthy lifestyle as well as a way of making money and getting closer to nature.

Nagano credited Jack Fraser, Linda Taylor and Shelby Jordan with spearheading the successful event.

Harvey Jessup, a former government fur expert, returned this year as one of the judges for the show.

“Jack Fraser invited us up for the very first fur show. I came up with Alex Van Bibber, who is also here again.”

Jessup said he could understand why the show faded away after a few years, but was glad to see it come back.

“I was pleased when I learned from Jack that they were going to revive the fur show. The industry has been in a slump for a number of years and I see this as an opportunity for a bit of a revival.”

“I think the fashion fur show was a great touch,” he said. ‘In the past when we came up here to do the show we would have the trapping community here and that was about it, the trappers and their wives and children. Now, what I see here is the trapping community and the community at large coming together.”

Not only is this good exposure for the industry in terms of promotion to the rest of the town, but Jessup feels it also gives the trappers a greater sense of what might be done with the resources they are harvesting.

“Most trappers produce fur and they have no idea where the fur goes. Here they get a sense of what can happen to the furs that they trap.”

Megan Waterman, a local designer in furs, who recently spearheaded a show called Wild by Design in Whitehorse, choreographed the fashion show that many seemed to feel was the hit of the day. The catwalk was short and on floor level, but the work of the eight designers and twenty volunteer models was well received by those in the crowded hall.

Waterman herself had four pieces on display, which she had designed as one-of-a-kind works for the November show. Fur, she says, is coming back after being out of fashion and politically incorrect for a while.

“Fur was forecast for the fall of ‘03 all over the place,” she said. The buzz began a year earlier in the trade magazines.

“It’s quite conducive as a Yukon trapper to be selling your furs to designers because there’s a big market there.

“Maybe this is just my perspective, but I think within the organic movement, and renewable resources and going back to nature sort of thing, people are starting to question why they just didn’t wear fur.”

Some of the earlier backlash against fur had, she thinks, more to do with fashion trends and preconceived notions of fur and trapping, rather than the reality of the situation.

“It’s not the full length eighties trench coats any more,” she said. “Now they’re seeing modern treatments, like the sheared beaver with all sorts of textures and dyed colours, and fur used with unconventional fabrics such as denims and other leathers.

“People are starting to lean toward that direction again. They’re starting to open their minds and not just going with the status quo, which was like, everybody’s anti-fur. They’re questioning that now, and it’s good.”

As for Jack Fraser, he’s been running a trapline, along with other seasonal work, since 1962, and is now happy to be sharing the line with his adult grandson, Joey. They placed either first, second or third in four of the five categories of furs being judged at the show. These were marten, lynx, wolverine, beaver and fox. There were two other categories - Junior and Little Trapper - to encourage the young to get involved.