Brad Loewen’s work on contact societies began with the Métis bison hunters of the western Plains and led to an exhibit at the Canadian Museum of History. Aspects of Métis society, such as resource accumulation, gender, language and material culture, are conceptually related to many Contact societies that were structured around the extractive industries of the early historical period. In his subsequent work on Basque fisheries and navigation, begun while he was at the Underwater Archaeology Service of Parks Canada, Loewen saw the sailing craft called a chalupa as an influential contact technology – this small boat was the Volkswagen of the sixteenth century, whose transfer to Native societies enabled contact networks to radiate over large areas. Since joining the Anthropology department at Université de Montréal, Loewen has studied land and underwater sites in Québec, and has brought maritime and contact themes into a common framework. His recent work on the Basque fisheries in Labrador and Chaleur Bay explores harp seal affordances as a catalyst for contact between Native and European maritime societies.