SEWING CULTURE THE TUKTOYAKTUK FUR GARMENT SHOP // WORDS BY CHARLES ARNOLD
IN THE 1950S, THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA
woke up to the fact that there was an urgent need to assist with community and economic development in the Arctic. Many Inuit who relied on fur trapping for their livelihood were moving into communities where schools, nursing stations, stores and other services were available, but where there were few employment opportunities. The construction of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line in the mid-to-late 1950s created some jobs, but most of them disappeared once the DEW Line went into operation. One of the programs that the government came up with to promote economic development was the Tuktoyaktuk Fur Garment Project. The first government-sponsored Fur Garment Project in what is now the Inuvialuit Settlement Region started in Aklavik in 1959. For several decades, Aklavik had been the commercial centre for the Western Arctic, but with the construction of Inuvik in the late 1950s, much of that activity shifted to the new location.
Sarah Gruben (McKay) stands in front of a sign for the Tuktoyaktuk Fur Garment Project, circa 1965. NWT Archives/Gladys Vear photographs/N-2013-023:0014.
The Aklavik Fur Garment Project began as a training course specifically for women offered by the Vocational Training Program of the Northern Administration Branch of the federal government. Most women in the community made clothing and other items for their family by hand sewing, drawing on skills and knowledge of how to make garments that had been passed down through the generations. The goal of the Aklavik Fur Garment Project was to build on existing skills to design and produce unique garments that could be marketed both locally and in other parts of Canada. Instruction was provided in pattern making, using industrial sewing machines and working with commercially tanned furs.
