Item N-2001-016: CN-36A - Dora Tourangeau (1 of 2) Fort Smith, March 31/1992

• Sound recording

1 audio cassette (47 min.)

This item is the first part of a three-part interview of Dora Tourangeau at Fort Smith, recorded on March 31, 1992 by Sister Agnes Sutherland as part of the 1992 Metis Heritage Project. The interview is in English. The original source item is side A of a 90 minute audio cassette. The interview also includes items CN-36B and CN-37. Dora provides biographical information about herself, while answering interview questions. Topics covered include mail, duties of wives, marriage, adoption and orphans, tuberculosis, expectations and activities of children, clothing, shopping, retirement, trapping, fishing, transportation, hunting, caribou, dog teams, provision for widows, sewing, relationship of the Hudson's Bay trader with the community, employment, cattle and horses, and preservation of food. Dora shares that her mother, ___ Paulette, was born in Fort Fitzgerald, and her ancestors were from St. Boniface, Manitoba. Dora was born in Fort Fitzgerald around 1904 and remained there until 1927, when she moved to a camp at Halfway for a few years. Dora's father had died of tuberculosis when she was 8 years old and her mother died of chicken pox when Dora was 16. In 1917, she attended the convent school at Fort Chipewyan for about a year and a half, however, she was sick for much of the time. Her mother also instructed her in sewing and knitting. After her mother's death, Dora lived with an uncle for awhile, then began working as a cook and housekeeper to support herself. She never married. Parts of the recording are of poor quality with audio blips. The recording ends abruptly.