Quebec honours West Quebec trapper Cathy Naud for opening trapping to women

Tashi Farmilo

Cathy Naud, the Aylmer trapper who founded the group Trappeuses du Québec, was among 24 women honoured at the Assemblée nationale du Québec on June 5 with the Reconnaissance Maud-Maloney-Watt, a new provincial distinction created to recognize women for their work in hunting, fishing, trapping and wildlife management. The awards were presented by Pascale Déry, the minister responsible for the environment, climate change, wildlife and parks, who said the women are helping to move those fields forward across the province.

The recognition, handed out for the first time at the ceremony, is named for Maud Maloney-Watt, the first woman to work as a game warden in Quebec. Recipients received a medal, a certificate and a lithograph from the Fondation pour la biodiversité et la faune du Québec. The province created the honour in 2024 under its strategy for equality between women and men, with the goal of recognizing women in fields long dominated by men. The same ceremony marked the 2026 Harfang des neiges prizes.

The government's citation names Naud as a pioneer in promoting trapping among women and as the founder of Trappeuses du Québec. It is a role she did not see coming. In the winter of 2018-2019, she followed her partner onto his trapline, drawn more by the forest than the trade. "I started to take an interest in trapping by going with my partner on his line," she said. She had grown up in the Hautes-Laurentides, spent years in the city, and felt the pull of the land returning. The line kept drawing her back. "The more time I spent at the camp and on the line, the more I realized how much it let me reconnect with something essential."

What held her, she said, was how much the work asks of a person. "Trapping calls for knowledge of wildlife, observation, resourcefulness and a lot of respect for the animals and their habitat." She completed her formal training in 2019 and ran her first season that same year.

The group followed from something she noticed once she was inside the milieu. "There were very few spaces where women could talk to each other, ask their questions and share their experiences without feeling judged," she said. She founded Trappeuses du Québec in February 2020 to change that, welcoming beginners, veterans and the simply curious, and tying it to a broader aim of ethical practice, public understanding and the full use of natural resources such as fur. The community has since reached close to 1,700 women in Quebec and beyond, spilling off social media into trade shows, conferences and trappers' days. It also gave rise to the Association des Trappeuses et Artisanes du Québec, which Naud now leads as founding president.

She is direct about why such a space was needed. "Historically, trapping has often been seen as a man's activity, and yet women have always had their place in it, even if their contribution was rarely brought to light," she said. Some women still feel they must prove themselves more than men do, she added, though that is changing as more of them earn their certificates, run their own lines, take up fur craft and step into leadership. Visibility, she believes, is what moves the needle. "When a woman sees other women trapping, sharing what they know and living their passion fully, she's far more likely to imagine herself in that world too."

The honour landed hard, even though she had to look up its namesake. "Even though I didn't know Mrs. Maloney-Watt's story before receiving this honour, I now understand how important this recognition is," she said. She is quick to share the credit. "Even though this recognition is given to me personally, it also belongs to the women who came along on the adventure. Without them, there would be no community. Together we helped open the trail for the ones who follow us today."

She would also like outsiders to look more closely at her region. The Outaouais, she said, still hides spots like Pink Lake and the Lusk Caves where the pace falls away. "It's still possible to find places where you can slow down, watch the wildlife, enjoy the quiet and reconnect with nature."