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Home away from home
Canvas tents as popular as ever in the North by by Jennifer Pritchett
NNSL (July 14/97) - No overnight trip on the Northern Barrens is complete without one. Tents have long been used in the North by everyone from aboriginal nomads to modern-day prospectors. They keep out the rain and mosquitoes and keep in the heat. And the fabric of choice is increasingly canvas. Greg Toner, general manager of Fort McPherson Tent and Canvas Ltd., estimates the company has sold between 10,000 and 15,000 tents since 1970 when they started sewing canvas shelters. Fort McPherson Tent and Canvas manufactures canvas tents such as the prospector wall tent, the tipi, and the logan tent. Toner says that the larger canvas models are mostly sold to aboriginals across the North, but they are starting to become more popular among geologists and just about anyone who spends time out on the land. "Our base clientele is aboriginals who use the tents for berry-picking and fishing," he said. "But people are starting to catch on to them because you don't have to crawl into them" (like many of the smaller, nylon-type tents). Toner said that the company will even design a tent specific to the buyer's needs. "It's built like a cottage," he said. "We can install screen windows, if that's what you like. It's the cheapest shelter you can buy." Sam Pikuyak of Hall Beach remembers when he was a boy growing up in Nanisivik, where he often went camping with his family. "My parents would tell us stories at night when there was nothing else to do," he said. "And we had lots of hard times when it would snow -- wet snow -- with no way of travelling from place to place except for walking and kayaking." Pikuyak, who still uses a home-made tent when he goes camping, said that accommodation for them while on the land has come a long way. "We used to use sealskin tents -- they were good even for when it was raining," he said. "But when the white people came up from the South with canvas tents, we started to use them." These days, commercial tents are required to be flame-retardant because of the dangers associated with untreated canvas. All of the tents manufactured by Fort McPherson Tent and Canvas Ltd. are made form polyethylene flame-retardant canvas and are designed to withstand the harshest challenges of mother nature. Pikuyak said he will be heading out on the land with his tent at the end of August to do some fishing. "We're going to go duck and snowgoose egg hunting or beluga hunting -- I enjoy it everyday," he said. |