Inuvialuit elders, youth to view rare artifacts at Smithsonian

A group of Inuvialuit from the Northwest Territories will get a rare glimpse this year at more than 500 artifacts that originally belonged to their ancestors that have been stored, out of public view, at the Smithsonian Institution for more than 100 years.

The group of elders and youth from the N.W.T.'s Mackenzie Delta will travel to Washington, D.C., this fall to view clothing, drawings and other items from the MacFarlane Collection, considered to be one of the largest and best-preserved records of Inuvialuit life in the 19th century.

"Anybody that's, like, worked with the culture and history of the Mackenzie Inuit ... it's their dream to see the collection at the Smithsonian," Cathy Cockney of the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre in Inuvik, N.W.T., told CBC News.

About 550 cultural artifacts were collected from the Inuvialuit — the Inuit of the western Arctic — between 1860 and 1870 by Roderick MacFarlane, a clerk with the Hudson Bay Company.

MacFarlane, who ran the first trading post in Inuvialuit country east of Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., provided the Smithsonian with items that included clothing, drawings and models of kayaks.

Elders who will go to the Smithsonian will share their traditional knowledge about the items, and bring back new knowledge about the items, said Natasha Lyons, an archaeologist who is arranging the Smithsonian visit.

"Some of the seamstresses that may come with us are excited ... to cut out patterns of some of the clothing and to see if they can reconstruct them," said Lyons, a post-doctoral fellow at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C.

Lyons said elders may be able to help pinpoint the origin of the artifacts.

"Some of the items we may be able to directly connect with current families living in the Delta," she said.

Two youth will be chosen to take part in the visit. Cockney said she hopes that will encourage young Inuvialuit to consider careers in anthropology.

The group eventually hopes to convince the Smithsonian to part temporarily with some of the artifacts and allow them to be exhibited in Canada's North.