Sharon Firth and her late twin sister, Shirley, are legends in Canada for their feats as cross-country skiers. Their lives were rooted in living off the land, and today Sharon champions the cause of bringing natural fur back to Canada's Olympic uniform, not seen since their first games in 1972. Image: Canada Post.

Gliding stride-by-stride across the frozen ice and snow of the Northwest Territories. The sting of frigid -30°C air filling your lungs with each gasp as you ski on, mile after mile. Your legs and arms burning like fire as you push yourself. Just you, alone, fighting against the pain of fatigue, battling a darkened winter sky and the elements of nature.

It’s not something everyone can do or even imagine. But it’s exactly here that Sharon Anne Firth found her calling. It’s where she traces her life, from a child on the trapline with her family, to Olympic glory around the world, and now, all the way back again. All the way back home.

Sharon Anne and her twin sister, the late Shirley Firth, also an Olympic cross-country skiing legend, were born two minutes apart in Aklavik in the Northwest Territories, on the last day of 1953. They were two of 13 brothers and sisters.

Sharon Anne is Gwich'in, a group of Dené indigenous people that have lived in the Arctic from Alaska to the Northwest Territories since time immemorial.

Considered the hub of the McKenzie Delta, Aklavik had it all at the time: about 800 residents, along with a hospital, post office, radio station, and of course a Hudson's Bay Company store. But in 1959, with fears growing that the town was sinking into the river, many residents were shipped off to nearby Inuvik, including the Firths.

The demise of Aklavik, as it turned out, was greatly exaggerated. While government was busy pushing people out of the town, a committee led by A.J. “Moose” Kerr fought back against the relocation. And in the end, the town was saved. In more ways than one.

“Today the motto for the town is ‘never say die,’ which makes a lot of sense,” Sharon Anne says laughing.

Love for Nature, Skiing

The Firth family lived a traditional lifestyle including fish from the river and lakes, the wood and stone materials around them, wild game from the forests and tundra, and furs from the trapline.

But the people of the north don’t just want to survive, they seek to thrive. And so it was that in 1967 teenagers Sharon Anne and Shirley had their date with destiny. While in a residential school that brought in children from upwards of 63 communities, they were introduced to cross-country skiing.

The person who introduced them to the sport was none other than Norwegian skiing legend Bjorger Pettersen, who was running clinics in the north with a view to identifying possible talent and growing the sport nationally.

Sharon Anne and Shirley were naturals.

“As soon as we put on the skis we immediately fell in love,” Sharon Anne says. “The McKenzie Delta was really full of raw talent for things like snowshoeing and skiing. We are an endurance people, we love the long distances and we love being outside in all sorts of conditions. It’s who we are. It’s in our genes and our lifestyles.”

Pettersen certainly recognized the raw talent in his midst and the Firths, along with some other local athletes, were asked to enter into serious training. Sharon Anne recalls that they had to get permission from their parents first before committing. That permission was granted and the training began immediately with some, well, unusual challenges.

“Coaches would put the training program on the wall each day and we would be running across the tundra to train,” she recalls. “We would run for hours, and of course, before we began, they reminded us that there was no berry-picking while we were out training!”

Off to the Games

The training, combined with the talent, paid off. And quickly.

After first laying eyes on skis in 1967, just five years later, Shirley and Sharon Anne, then just 18 years old, were faced with a prospect almost too big to fathom: competing at the Winter Olympics in Sapporo, Japan.

But even then, things would not come easy for the twins.

Shirley fell ill and landed in hospital. Her illness was such that she was told she should not only forget about making it to the Olympics, but about competitive skiing altogether. But when you come from a town whose mantra is “never say die”, you don’t throw down the skis and quit.

“I visited her every day in hospital after I was done training, and the more I went to see her, the better she got. She was very strong-willed. She decided she was going to get out of the hospital, get back on her skis and fight to make the Olympics - and that’s exactly what she did. And so we both went to Japan,” Sharon Anne recalls proudly.

The Firths were the first Indigenous women to wear the Maple Leaf and represent Canada at the Winter Olympics. There was a huge sense of pride and accomplishment, but also pressure.

“Shirley and I pushed ourselves, we fought hard, and trained like you would not believe,” Sharon Anne says. “We were representing ourselves and our country, but also Indigenous peoples. We had gone from the trapline all the way to the Olympics. This wasn’t just about us and sports and competition. We were athletes and role models, and we knew it.

Having real fur on our Canadian Olympic uniform, it was a sense of pride and also made us feel connected to our home even though we were halfway around the world.

“It was a powerful feeling in the starting gate,” Sharon Anne says, recalling there was one thing that gave her strength as she prepared to step into the games: fur.

“Having real fur on our Canadian Olympic uniform, it was a sense of pride and also made us feel connected to our home even though we were halfway around the world.”

In all, Sharon Anne would represent her country and her people at several national and world championship skiing events, and at four different Winter Olympics: Sapporo 1972, Innsbruck 1976, Lake Placid 1980 and Sarajevo 1984.

She retired in 1985 and faced a question many elite athletes do after years of structure and training and planning, and strictly regimented living: now what?

For Sharon Anne, the answer was simple. She would go home.

Back to the Northwest Territories

“I knew I had to go back to the Northwest Territories,” she says. “I was raised on the trapline and on the land; it was what I knew, what I loved. Hunting, fishing and trapping and living a life in nature, with nature.”

She moved back to her home territory and settled in the capital, Yellowknife. Her first job was at Expo 86 in Vancouver, working with young people relaying to them the amazing life she had led. In the years that followed, she worked for the government, and the honours and accolades worthy of a trailblazing athlete of her stature have flowed appropriately.

She is a member of the Order of Canada, and more recently, the Order of the Northwest Territories. She is a member of the Canadian Museum Ski Hall of Fame, Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, Banff Sports Hall of Fame, and NWT Sports Hall of Fame. She has received the Queen’s Golden and Silver Jubilee Awards, a National Aboriginal Achievement Award, and an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from the University of Alberta, and has been named an Adjunct Professor University of Alberta, School of Public Health.

Recently Sharon Anne and Shirley were immortalized when they were added to the Women in Winter Sports stamp series from Canada Post that includes themselves along with other sporting legends Nancy Greene, Danielle Goyette, Clara Hughes and Sonja Gaudet.

Champion for Natural Fur

And now you can add a new title to Sharon Anne’s lengthy résumé: a champion for natural, sustainable fur.

As a person who has lived from the land for a great part of her life, and who understands the positive impact of natural fur in rural and Indigenous communities, she has a new mission: to give Olympic athletes a choice to be able to wear fur at the Winter Games just like she did.

“Natural fur is my passion,” she says. “I was raised on the land, we always had the very best of things from the land including our furs. People in the south go to the mall or grocery store to get what they need, we go to the land or the trapline.”

She says fur is part of the Canadian cultural fabric, but also part of the ecological landscape.

“As a people we understand management and balance in nature, we never take more than is needed, and we use whatever nature gives us. It’s pure and natural,” she says. “Hunting, fishing and trapping unites us all across this country, it always has.”

Fur is Canada ... I’d like to see athletes be able to wear natural fur at the Olympic Games, to feel the connection to their culture and country the way I did.

And for a young teenager, standing in the starting gate at her first Olympics in a country she had only ever read about, fur was something else. It was part of the theme that has permeated Sharon Anne's life.

Fur was, in a way, home.

“Fur is Canada,” she says. “So yes, I would like to see athletes have a chance to experience what I had as an Olympian. I’d like to see Canadian athletes be able to wear natural fur at the Olympic Games, to feel the connection to their culture and country the way I did.”

"Never Give Up"

Shirley Firth, meanwhile, got married in 1984 and lived in France for many years. But she too stayed connected with her home as she worked with universities and Canadian Embassies in Europe promoting the Northwest Territories and its people.

Sadly, Shirley’s life, though so full and amazing, was cut far too short. She passed away in April 2013.

But Sharon Anne's connection to her twin sister has never faded. “She is always with me,” she says. “She is always reminding me to never quit, never give up.”

***

To learn more about donating to Truth About Fur, click here.

Educating people about the fur trade and related lifestyles can take many forms. Sharon Firth, a four-time Olympian and Northwest Territories skiing legend, is lobbying senators and members of Parliament to incorporate fur into the next Canadian Olympic uniform. Firth and her late twin sister Shirley were the first female Indigenous athletes to represent Canada at the Winter Olympics. "The last time they had real fur was the 1972 Olympics and I'm proud to say that I was there wearing real fur on my parka," Firth told CBC. She specifically called out the red parkas worn by Canadian athletes at the 2010 Olympics, which were adorned with fake fur. "The fur industry has a history in the North and then to have fake fur on coats, that's crazy. We're not plastic people. It's pitiful."

In New York, the public High School of Fashion Industries has revived its teaching of working with fur, with all materials provided by Fur New York. The school is located just south of the city's old Fur District, once home to more than 450 fur businesses. Now only 130 remain, employing 1,100 people, many of them nearing retirement, and Fur New York is eager to see new workers enter the trade.

Meanwhile, the Nova Scotia association Women that Hunt has started serving meals of wild meat to families who use local food banks and shelters. Helping the Hungry is a joint initiative of the hunting community and Feed Nova Scotia, which allows hunters to donate a portion of their deer, moose or bear meat to help feed families. In turn, Women that Hunt hope to educate and inspire women and youth into the hunting and fishing lifestyle.

Or you can educate people by taking to the air waves, like Jen Shears, owner of Natural Boutique in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, specialising in seal products. Shears has some choice words for protesters outside her store, calling them an “elitist cult” engaged in “a special kind of narcissism” based on “short-sighted emotion” and “racist and unsustainable beliefs.” But at least business has been good. "Business has been booming the last couple of days thanks to the advertising that has come about because of these protesters," says Shears. "When you make a bunch of Newfoundlanders mad then they really support you and support the messages around the sustainable culture that we have here."

Chanel Drops Exotic Skins, but Continues with Responsible Fur

Designer brands are headline-grabbers when it comes to the debate about sustainable use and fashion. In 2017, it was Gucci's misguided justification for dropping real fur that focused media attention on the sustainability of real fur versus fake fur and other synthetics made of petroleum. A question inevitably raised at the time was how Gucci could justify dropping fur while continuing to use exotic skins like alligator and python. Gucci dodged the question, but that is harder to do now that rival brand Chanel has announced it will be dropping exotic skins while maintaining responsibly sourced fur.

According to a Chanel statement: “We are continually reviewing our supply chains to ensure they meet our expectations of integrity and traceability. In this context, it is our experience that it is becoming increasingly difficult to source exotic skins which match our ethical standards.”

In reality, it seems to have been a purely business decision, less about ethical standards and more about Chanel's failure to maintain supply chains for top-quality materials. Business of Fashion said Chanel had simply been squeezed out of supply chains controlled by other brands, while Christy Plott, an operator of crocodile and alligator farms in Florida, told BoF, “This is 100 percent the case of Chanel being a loser in this market and being pushed out by Hermès, Kering and LVMH."

But whatever Chanel's real reason for dropping exotic skins, the principles involved in the conservation and sustainable use of crocs and pythons are precisely the same as those applied to some furbearers. It was thus important when representatives of the International Union for Conservation of Nature pointed out the positive role played by luxury skin markets both in conserving certain wild species and providing livelihoods for humans who live with and depend on these wildlife.

Fake Furs Shown to Share Problems with Other Plastics

Meanwhile, the industry's effort to point out the serious problems with fake fur continues to gain traction in mainstream media, including WWD's "Plastic waste fuels the fire in faux vs. real fur debate," The Frisky's "How does faux fur compare to real fur coats", and The Independent's "Fashion industry turns a blind eye with unsustainable fake fur, says MP Mary Creagh." The debate is also being thrashed out on a local level in Dallas, Texas, where, despite the balmy temperatures, a furrier says he hasn't seen even the slightest dip in business over the last few years. "We have so much business we don’t have to advertise," Marcene Reiss says.

Despite some attention being given to the environmental problems of fake furs and other petroleum-based synthetics, TruthAboutFur's senior researcher, Alan Herscovici, decries the paucity of facts and serious analysis in the media's coverage of the fur debate, and would like to see more in-depth coverage of fur's sustainability credentials.

Nonetheless, TheFashionLaw.com suggested that "The conversation about fur became far more nuanced in 2018." Most interesting, TheFashionLaw makes a case for an important view that's rarely heard in the media: that designer brands are dropping fur simply to increase profits. "Fashion companies can save a lot of money and increase their profit margins by making faux fur coats and selling them at a similar price to real fur coats,” says one interviewee, journalist Alden Wicker. ”The motivation is money, not altruism.”

Another is "Fur and the necessity of consumer engagement". "Buying a faux fur coat does not make one an ethical consumer, and neither does eschewing plastic straws," explains Alison McArthur. "... Educating ourselves on these issues will allow us to become more conscious consumers and to make better informed decisions about our purchases. It would allow us to consider, for example, why many of us wouldn’t wear real fur, but would be perfectly content to buy a leather handbag or shoes."

Bits 'n' Bobs

The US Congress has agreed to make it easier to kill sea lions to help protect runs of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River and its tributaries. In addition to helping conservation efforts, this move is a rare case of introducing flexibility to the application of the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which has banned all takes of marine mammals since 1972.

According to John Zander of raw fur company Zander & Sons, China is playing an important role in the raw fur market, due to high demand for finished products and low dressing costs. "We know two things, one is there are a lot of Chinese who want to wear fur and second, the manufacturing end over there is a fraction of what it costs us. To dress a coyote here costs us $15. They do it for $6 in China. Over there they dress a muskrat for $1. Here it costs $6 which is more than the original price of the pelt.”

And last but not least, here's a great video on trapping in Saskatchewan, with a focus on the role trapping plays in the conservation of wildlife populations.