CHURCH AND STATE 1900–1960s How we lived
The Roman Catholic Mission in Tuktoyaktuk Father Robert Lemeur, a Roman Catholic priest who served at several mission stations, wrote about the establishment of the Roman Catholic mission in Tuktoyaktuk: In 1937 (the RC missionaries had) the first extended contact with the people. Everything seemed ideal for a mission […] When Chief Mangulaluk was approached he had no objections to our presence in his village and he determined the place (for the mission) and he told us to take quite a large piece of ground […] The first building was transported in 1938 on Our Lady of Lourdes, from Herschel Island […] the first resident missionary (was) Father Franche, and his companion (was) Brother Guerin. (Robert Lemeur, Souvenirs de l’Arctique, undated.)
Roman Catholic church, Tuktoyaktuk, 2009. (Courtesy of Anglican Church of Canada)
Top: Father Lemeur inside the mission at Tutoyaktuk with several parishioners (no date). (Missionary Oblates, Grandin Archives at the Provincial Archives of Alberta// OB.22068)
(L): Father Franche, omi, with children from the school at Aklavik home for the holidays in Tuktoyaktuk, 1954. (Missionary Oblates, Grandin Archives at the Provincial Archives of Alberta/OB.22057)
(L): Our Lady of Lourdes Roman Catholic Mission boat, with the RC Mission warehouse in the background, 1948-1956. (Terrence Hunt/NWT Archives/N-1979-062-0027)
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