The ACWW Flag Flies to the Arctic

This information is an article written by Elizabeth Lefsrud of the Alberta Women's Institute as published in the Countrywoman Magazine, for July/September of 1981:

Where would you eat char and caribou, wear mukluks and a mother hubbard and go visiting by snowmobile or dog sled? The answer is in Canada's Arctic North! That's where Pearl Warren of Manitoba, Chairman of the Northern Canada Women's Institute Committee was going in March. Marie Plaizier, President of the Alberta Women's Institutes and I went along.

Flying from Edmonton over a black and white vastness of spruce trees mingled with myriads of frozen lakes and rivers, we were pleasantly surprised, when we arrived, by the vivid colours. At Inuvik, North West Territories, the airport building was gold and blue. In town the yellows, pinks, blues, greens and violets bid us a cheerful welcome, as did the colourful parkas, gay moccasins and artistic signs.

Pearl had arranged meetings with two WI's at Fort McPherson and Aklavik. So, in by twin Otter plane we went to Fort McPherson. In this settlement of 500, the people knew we were coming. The men smiled at us, she children said hello, and the women timidly asked if we were from the WI. The majority of the population is Indian and Eskimo, with the whites coming in mainly as teachers, social workers and government personnel. As the indigenous people become better educated, however, they are taking over some of these jobs.

We had come to see how our northern friends live with the extremes of climate and isolation, and how they manage with the rapid inroads into their traditional ways. So we were happy that, because of Pearl Warren's contacts, we were able to stay in their homes.

To each meeting, Pearl brought the materials for a quilt, which she showed the women how to put together. Later she spoke of Institute work in other parts of Canada and stressed the International Year of the Disabled. Marie Plaizier displayed the ACWW flag and showed slides of the Hamburg Conference. Two of their members had attended the conference in Nairobi and two others the one in Hamburg, so the fact that Canada was hosting the next world meeting had a special meaning.

I found the women quietly friendly and generous, supportive of each other. The WI President, Mary Firth (whose son has served as a Member of Parliament), said their work consists mainly of helping people – supplying wood for a needy woman or groceries for  a widower with children.

We went to Mary Firth's for tea. In her roomy two-storey home, with electricity, oil heating, water and sewerage, a group of people sat watching television, which came to the North six years ago via communications satellite. Because of the permafrost – a layer of permanent frozen soil which will shift if thawed – all of their buildings are built above ground on props or stilts.

We met some of Mary's family. A daughter-in-law with two pre-teenagers was visiting, a son was home from oil-drilling in the Beaufort Sea, another son from pipeline construction, a teenage girl and Mary's two month old grandson whose mother worked in Inuvik. When we asked how many children Mary had, a discussion with all present followed. It seemed that she had seven of her own, and eight,, mostly related, whom she had brought up. Still others had stayed with her off and on.

Because of the disruption of the traditional means of making a living – trapping, hunting and fishing---  many people must now move around to where there is employment. Older people supply a  home base for these workers, and for single mothers who know that their children will be cared for. Older people also provide links with traditional culture. Outsiders are finding that they must work within this culture as much as possible. Workers and students are allowed a week or two every now and then to hunt, fish, trap or attend a cultural event. Women told me that they still go on the trap-line every spring. The prices for pelts are high but animals are becoming more scarce.

Caribou, which was once a staple, is still available (we ate it several times), but not always. We also ate rabbit soup, arctic char (a fish similar to salmon) and jam made of wild berries. Most of their food now comes from shops. Years back, all the cereals, canned and bagged goods were brought in by boat during open water. Later, fresh fruits and vegetables came in by plane. Now, with an all-weather highway, stocking up for a whole year is a thing of the past.

At a time of rapid transition in their way of life, education is a major factor for adults and children. Schooling is a mixed blessing for indigenous children. When a child finishes elementary school in a small settlement he or she must go to a residential school away from home. Loneliness usually brings them back. The children who persist  in school can never really come back They often become aliens in both worlds.. I did talk with several who are managing in the white man's world, and there are inter-marriages,, but the transition is not easy. With so many changes over which they have no control they are frustrated. Alcoholism is a serious problem.

Women are the stabilizers in all this change, I was told by  a community worker. They were the power behind the prohibition of liquor in several communities, and they are the boosters of better health and educational services. In rimes of unemployment, women help financially by producing handicrafts.

We visited several craft shops, a souvenir factory,  fur factory, and homes where women had good sewing machines and tools to make leather and fur articles. I tried on a pair if mukluks, a high moccasin originally made out of sealskin, beautifully crafted and trimmed with fur.  A mother hubbard is the warmest outdoor dress I ever wore. It is a fur-hooded skin coat with a bright print dress over it with only the fur hood and fur trim at the wrists and hemline showing,. The cotton dress can be detached for laundering.

About 15 years ago, a WI worker from the South organized Institutes in t he North till there were 14. But in a mobile society, the pieces fall apart easily. Through the efforts of Pearl and Marie, two more Institutes may be organized in Inuvik and Yellowknife. When we talked with the women and with adult educators and social workers, all agreed that what was needed was a group through which the women could ask for educational and other kinds of help – help they would not or could not get individually.

Our North is a great frontier with many challenges. The greatest of them is to help a sturdy and unique people to live with dignity  and self-respect.