After a harrowing trip, the voyageurs have returned to the fort! Witness the loving reunion of friends and family who made it back home. Let the celebration begin!

Next to Fort Gibraltar, The Rendez-Vous can be found on the West side of the fort. If coming from the front doors of the fort, you would turn right and go to the side of the wall and look North.

The Forks, situated at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, was a regional transportation and trading hub for thousands of years. As European fur trading companies moved into the area, they took advantage of these existing trade networks and established posts like Fort Gibraltar. Built in 1810 by the North West Company, the fort became a transhipment centre and a strategic fortification, managing supplies of mainly food stuffs and trade. Integral to these operations was the labour of company servants called engagés or voyageurs. Their sense of adventure, desire for upward mobility, and incredible physical strength created a dynamic workforce upon which the upper classes, the clerks and bourgeois, were heavily reliant. The work was arduous, sometimes even deadly. Voyageurs paddled and portaged all day for months on end, ensuring that the North West Company’s supplies made their way west, and the coveted furs made their way east. The shared agony of hard labour and loss of comrades brought them closer together as they penetrated a continent of rich resources and diverse communities.

Voyageurs not only formed lasting relationships with each other, but with the land and with the Indigenous communities upon whom the companies relied for labour, provisions, furs, knowledge, and even companionship. Many voyageurs and clerks married into Indigenous families for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes, these marriages were commercial, political, and also personal. Forming relationships with Indigenous women gave voyageurs and clerks greater access to provisions and a safety net (in the form of an extended family and community) in case of conflicts with other Indigenous nations or competing companies. This would have been well-understood by Europeans, who were accustomed to affirming relationships between families, houses, and even nations through political marriages.

These marriages, along with other celebrations like Rendez-vous, would have ranged from small affairs wherein clerks and partners would feast their servants with food and drams of spirits to great parties, featuring music and dancing. Although not many voyageurs would have fiddles in the canoe, they would certainly have smaller instruments, like fifes and jaw harps. Several accounts of these dances include descriptions of hand-held drums, likely an Indigenous transplant. Rendez-vous were also an opportunity for a voyageur’s favourite pastime, gambling. Engagés were known for being big risk-takers, both at work and at play. They would box, race in canoes, and wrestle, gambling on their favourite fighter. Often, partners would get involved, betting with other partners on their favourite voyageur-filled canoe. Voyageurs would also play chance games and strategy games, like game of the mitten, farkle, or 9 men’s Morris. All in all, a Rendez-vous was a great way for partners to reward their workers and keep them in line, and for voyageurs to gain social capital amongst themselves, make new friends, and re-affirm their long and lasting friendships forged in labour.

Written by Colin and Monique. Revised by Phil and Janet.