The grand dictator

Good morning Brave hearts!

Colour your world to the dictates of fashion. An array of beauty unfolds to greet you. The grand master of influence and adventure. A call to the superior mind, to the inferior will, to the jealous and the courageous, to be spoiled and to secumb, to the master of human destiny, to be fated and ill fated, for necessity, for income, for prosperity and for nation building.
Fashion!
The word echoes in the ears of centuries old man. The fine garments, the decorative interiors, the gilted gold and bejeweled ornaments. The fun of the grandeur, the privilege of the covering, the daring to be individualized and the refreshing outlook of a different approach.
Hail, great human! Come to the wild! Here is where all destiny awaits. In business and trade, in negotiation and marriage, in adventure and lifestyle. Come, live your lives in the great Canadian north, where the dictator surrounds you and compels your compliance. Look to the forest, almighty human, there is the answer to your needs.
The aboriginal peoples of Canada clothed themselves in the finest and most sought after garments in the world at the time. Fur and leather are the trademark of their apparel. Hunting and trapping are the trademarks of their lives.
The bountiful forest and the open tundra yield animal life by the thousands. The daring lives of the bold northern hunter as he skillfully sets his trap line and waits in eager anticipation of the dollars to come. The stealthy hunter who stalks a prey of fleet footed wild for food and for fur. What brings you here, oh brave hearts, to settle in the remote far north? A land of danger and destitution for most. A land of changes and peril.
Cloak yourselves like kings. The seal gives up hides of waterproof warmth, for snugly insulated footwear, warm and impermeable. No dampness there, no winters chill, no ice cube toes or frostbitten feet. A necessity of an age gone by, where warm mukluks, kept us warm and dry. A coat of caribou, deer or bear. For centuries old man clothed himself in the finest cloth that man could find, fur.
Bejeweled in feathers, claws and teeth, bone for knives and ornamentation, the life of the land drew the cunning and daring, the strong and agile, the persistent and healthy. The clever craftsman of ingenuity and necessity, created a culture, a life, a world of their own.
Drawn to the hunt, by need or adventure, the northern man is a rightful settler. The need for the wild, as it gives up it’s treasure, is returned in the dutiful knowledge that waste is intolerable. All parts must be used, in meat, in fur, in bone, in teeth. The wild gives up their lives so sparingly, that precious gift must not be wasted.
Cloak yourselves in fur and feather, leather and hides from hats to boots, to mitts to coats, to pant and shirts.
Oh great dictator, you dress so well, for fashion calls us from our warm abode to venture out into the cold, to the north, to Canada, to settle and trade and to become the nation that we are. The nation of the fur trade.

This clip is about building an igloo, but look at their traditional garments!
written by Dr. Louise Hayes
January 17, 2014

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