Fonds 242 - Inuvialuit Social Development Program fonds

• Sound recording
• Textual record
• Graphic material

13.8 cm of textual records
64 audio cassettes
19 photographs : b&w negatives

This fonds consists of 64 audiocassettes, 13.8 cm of textual material and 19 b/w negatives. The sound recording and textual records were generated by the Herschel Island and Yukon North Slope Inuvialuit Oral History Projects, which were coordinated by the Inuvialuit Social Development Program (ISDP). The photographs were accumulated as part of the Aulavik Oral History Project coordinated by Murielle Nagy in 1996.

In 1990, the Yukon Heritage Branch contracted the ISDP to initiate work on the Herschel Island and Yukon North Slope Oral History Project . It was planned as a three-year project that would focus on the documentation of Inuvialuit land use and perceptions. The first year would focus on Herschel Island, the second year on the Yukon North Slope and a synthesis of information would be produced in the third year. The results of the project were to be used to identify and develop human history themes from an Inuvialuit perspective in parks on Herschel Island and northern Yukon.

The Herschel Island component of the project (also known at the Qikiqtaruk Herschel Island Cultural Study) consists of 35 interviews that were conducted with 18 elders from Inuvik, Aklavik and Tuktoyaktuk in 1990. The records include: audio recordings and tape summaries of the 35 interviews; English and Inuvialuktun transcriptions and translations; a copy of the final report of the study; and an alphabetical subject/name index for the interviews conducted in 1990 and also those conducted in the 1991 Yukon North Slope Cultural Resources Survey. The interviews were conducted by Murielle Nagy, the project anthropologist, Bill Schneider (an anthropologist from Fairbanks, Alaska), Renie Arey who did the interviews with elders from Aklavik and Inuvik and Agnes Gruben White who interviewed the elders from Tuktoyaktuk. The elders interviewed were Ishmael Alunik, Renie Arey, Jane Esau, Alex Gordon, Hope Gordon, Persis Gruben, Kathleen Hansen, Fred Inglangasuk, Lucy Inglangasuk, Bella Jacobsen, Jimmy Jacobsen, Dora Malegana, Joe Nasogaluak, Sarah Meyook, Albert Oliver, Jean Tardiff, Peter Thrasher and Agnes Gruben White. Rosie Archie, Maria Selamio and Renie Arey produced the English translations of the interviews. Anna Illisiak and Barbra Allen produced the Inuvialuktun transcriptions. Subjects include fishing, hunting, whaling, spiritual beliefs, clothing, methods of transportation, dances, food preparation, traditional healing, houses and place names. There is also genealogical information on the Inuvialuit who lived on Herschel Island.

The Yukon North Slope component of the project (also known as the Yukon North Slope Cultural Resources Survey) was carried out by the Inuvialuit Social Development Program under contract with Parks Canada. In 1991, the project coordinators interviewed 23 elders from Aklavik, Inuvik, and Tuktoyaktuk. The focus of the survey was the documentation of post-contact aboriginal land use as recorded in historic sites, graves, resource extraction areas, caches, lookouts, trails, place names and gathering places in the Yukon Arctic Basin. The project coordinator was Murielle Nagy, and the interviewers were Agnes Gruben White and Renie Arey. The Inuvialuit elders interviewed were: Persis Gruben, Charlie Gruben, Christina Klengenberg, Diamond Klengenberg, Bessie Wolki, Emmanuel Felix, Peter Rufus, Jonah Carpenter, Jimmy Jacobson, Agnes Gruben White, Raymond Mangelana, Ishmael Alunik, Rhoda Allen, Martha Henry, Jean Arey, Fred Inglangasuk, Sarah Meyook, Alex Gordon, Dora Malegana, Emma Edwards, Lily Lipscombe, Kathleen Hansen and David Roland. The records include: a copy of the final report on the Yukon North Slope Cultural Resources Survey; 29 audio recordings of the interviews; and English and Inuvialuktun transcriptions and translations of the interviews. Subjects depicted include fishing, hunting, whaling, relations between the Inuvialuit and the whalers, fur traders and missionaries, Inuvialuit spiritual beliefs, and the construction of DEW Line sites in the Delta.

In 1996, Murielle Nagy coordinated the Aulavik Oral Histroy Project, doing field work in several Inuvialuit communities. Family photographs lent to her by the people she met were then loaned to the NWT Archives for copying, who kept a set of copies. The photographs date from the early 1900s to 1964 and feature