Long, Long, Ago

by Pat Dunn

WhenTuktut Nogait was agreed to in 1996, Parks Canada needed to learn what was in the new park. Eight elders were interviewed to learn about where people travelled and hunted in the region, and about how they lived. The interviews were published as a book, the Paulatuuq Oral History Project. The interviews were a way of learning from the people who “look around the land” and who know it the best.

“Food caches are all over within the Park boundary,” elder Tony Green told interviewers. “People were travelling a lot them days, they would walk and walk. The country is full of all kinds of tent rings.” Over 360 archaeological sites have been found in the park so far. The first interview to be carried out as part of the Paulatuuq oral history project was with Father Leonce Dehurtevent, who served Paulatuuq as its priest for close to 40 years. Another set of interviews with other elders has now been held and these will be put into a second book.

“Youknow when you travel you look around the land. You can recognize it by landmarks; land, lakes, hills, and what the land looks like.” These are the words of Edward Ruben, Paulatuk elder, when he was interviewed for the book, Paulatuuq Oral History Project: Inuvialuit Elders Share Their Stories. Edward was one of the group of people who together gave Tuktut Nogait National Park its name, meaning “young caribou from the time it is born till it is a year of age”.

Because the history was originally spoken, people can sometimes listen to the interviews as well as read them. In Sachs Harbour, the new Aulavik National Park visitor centre will soon have an audio station. By pressing a button, people will be able to listen to an elder telling a story in his or her own voice and words, in the original Inuvialuktun interviews conducted for a Banks Island oral history. They will also be able to listen to the same story in English narrated by local residents, and in French as well.

One story is told by Edith Haogak, of how people made their own clothes out of skins. “ Long ago, ever since I could remember, they never had material clothing,” Edith says in the interview. “Only caribou clothing. Only caribou skins. Sometimes we had seal skins, aitqatik. Sometimes shoes made of seal skins and pants made out of young seal skins. That’s the way we used to live.” People will be able to listen to this interview right next to a display of traditional clothing sewn from skins, made by Edith and her sisters Sarah Kuptana and Lena Wolki. Learning the stories of these places will help us to protect and understand the land. But it is just as important to preserve the stories themselves and to tell them, so that anyone can learn how people lived here long ago, and how people live today.

Upcoming Parks Canada Events

For further information on any of these events, contact Parks Canada at 867-777-8800.

Friday, April 21, 2006

Aulavik National Park Visitor Reception Centre Grand Opening, Sachs Harbour

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Tuktut Nogait National Park Interpretive Centre Grand Opening, Paulatuuq

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Aulavik National Park Management Plan Review -Public Meeting

Did you know?

The Bluenose-West caribou herd calves in the park.

There are over 360 archaeological sites in Tuktut Nogait National Park park.

People have lived and travelled here since 1000 AD at least.

The park is over 18,000 sq km including a recent addition made in the Sahtu Settlement Region.

Tent rings, caches, rock alignments, meat drying areas, kayak rests and hunting blinds can all be observed.

There are hundreds of kilometres of spectacular canyons along the Hornaday, Brock and Roscoe Rivers .