'No one knew more about the ice': Paulatuk, N.W.T. elder Tony Green remembered

Tony Green, a respected elder from Paulatuk, N.W.T., is being remembered for the extraordinary depth of his traditional knowledge and his dedication to protecting the land.

Green died earlier this month at the age of 81.

Paulatuk Mayor Ray Ruben Sr. said Green was the last remaining person in that community who lived out on the land for three seasons of the year, and at the time of his death was the only completely fluent speaker of Inuvialuktun in the community.

"I wish I had words to express, you know, the loss and what is taken and how much of an influence he was to a lot of us," Ruben said.

He said people were especially inspired by Green's passion for living on the land in a traditional way.

"I can't stress enough what it [meant] for him to be out in the camp… my camp is about seven, eight kilometres down the coast. We'd often visit, take a trip going through, and he'd always be there, out in his camp," said Ruben.

"Now there's no one there." 

Green was born in 1943, and came of age during a time of profound change in the Inuvialuit region. As a young man in the 1960s, he was part of the group of community members who advocated for Paulatuk to become a recognized settlement. He also served in several leadership positions in the community, including as head of the Hunters and Trappers Committee.

But Green lived most of his life outside of the settlement, on the land with his wife Mary and his family. They had nine of their own children, and eight adopted children.

Green's daughter Dianne Ruben described her father as a direct, practical person who loved the land and felt a deep sense of responsibility to pass on his traditional knowledge to the next generation.

"He's taught [his children] so well. He's taught us to respect the land, respect the animals, don't waste nothing, only take what you need. And we do that today," she said. 

Dianne Ruben said her parents also passed on their traditional knowledge to their grandkids and other youth every summer for decades, hosting them at their camp. She said many of the kids who went to those camps are now educated and working, and still spend time on the land.

'No one knew more about the ice'

Dianne's husband Lawrence Ruben worked with Green for many years at the Paulatuk Hunters and Trappers Committee.

"In our community, no one knew more about the ice than Tony," he told CBC.

Lawrence said Green's observations were vital to the work the Hunters and Trappers Committee did with governments, science, and industry.

"We considered him our barometer or our indicator of climate change out on the land," Lawrence said, adding that Green began noticing the effects of climate change on the land as early as the 1980s.

Lawrence said Green also taught him "how to speak to people outside of the community, so they understood so well that we were in control of our land, waters and resources."

Green always insisted that any entity making decisions that could affect the people and wildlife in the Paulatuk area should come to the community in person and speak to its residents — from environmental groups to governments.

"He was quite hard on them," said Lawrence. "I learned from that."

Lawrence said that Green's greatest legacy will be his passion for protecting the land and Inuvialuit traditions, which he embodied in everything he did.

"I'm hoping our community carries that principle on, so that our community remembers, that future generations will have what he had when he was growing up: the animals, the land, and the freedom to live out there."