An unusual sight passed through the streets of downtown on Wednesday. Roughly two dozen teenagers dressed in old woolen pants, bright red long tailed toques, and coloured sashes were seen walking, toting canoe paddles and slinging large canvas bedrolls from their heads.
The teenagers, who are students from Wood Street Centre School, together with several teachers, were on their way to begin an overnight canoe trip on the Yukon River, mimicking the travels of francophone voyageur fur traders in the 19th century.
The trip is part of the school’s PASE experiential learning program that sees students combine research and classroom learning with real world experiences.
Karin Belanger is a teacher at Wood Street Centre who teaches PASE 9 to her French language students. She says the program is aimed at teaching students about early francophone history in Canada by connecting students to history through a lived experience.
The students who embarked on this week’s canoe trip are all French language students who have spent the past several weeks learning about the lives of early francophone traders and explorers, as well as the many First Nations people they traded with and lived alongside during the early days of the Canadian fur trade.
The research was completed in preparation for another project the students will be undertaking during the trip — filming a short movie written and directed by the group.
Each student has selected a historical figure from the voyageur era whom they will now play in the short film.
Belanger says the creation of the film is designed to help the students gain a deeper understanding of the lives of the voyageurs. “Instead of just writing a paper, they have to really go deeper … they have to have feeling and know what it means to encounter some trouble.”
In addition to all of their food, bedrolls and clothes, the students also loaded boxes of costumes and wigs to aid in the production of their film, which will be shot on Egg Island, roughly 21 kilometres downriver from Whitehorse.
Throughout the trip, the students and their teachers planned to mimic the lives of voyageurs as closely as possible, eschewing modern tents in favour of sleeping in canvas bedrolls underneath their overturned canoes. The group’s food for the trip was also historically accurate, consisting primarily of dried meat, beans, and lard.
Launching from Rotary Park, the group loaded themselves and their provisions into two massive 10-person canoes similar in size to what actual voyageurs would have used, with two smaller two-person canoes rounding out the small flotilla.
Despite the biting chill in the air and forecasted rain ahead of them, the students showed little signs of nervousness.
“I’m more excited [than nervous]” said 14 -year-old Ben Chaikel, who added that he was happy the students where allowed to make a few concessions to the modern world and add their waterproof-breathable material rain gear into the bedrolls swaying from straps slung around their foreheads.
The group was joined at the riverside by several parents who came to see the students off with many photos taken and hugs exchanged before the canoes were pushed into the water just after noon.
Contact Noah Korver at noah.korver@yukon-news.com
By Noah Korver, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on May 27, 2026 at 11:29
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