Mufa Kudlak

I wasn’t part of the negotiating or the working group, which was established after Nelson Green passed on. Tey put me up there to represent the HTC and the Management Board, so I been doing that for a number of years now.

Just like any other park, Tuktut Nogait is open; there’s no obstructions. When you go over the ridge there’s always the next ridge to go over. Tere’s no physical structures other than just our base camp. Te wildlife, the viewing; the animals come right up to you. It’s like they know you’re not hunting them, so they come right by you.

Te vastness of the land—when we were up there on that big hill on the first hike, you’re just looking around, and cause you’re so high you can see so much of the land. It's just complete space and it takes time to sink in once you get up on top of the ridge ‘cause you take your time and absorb the scenery.

Te Park has three major river systems, and the scenery is beautiful: the Hornaday, the Brock River, and also the Roscoe River. Tey’re three diferent characters in themselves, and even this little miniature waterfall has its own little place in the visitor’s heart if they go to see that spot.

My

fondest memory of the park?

We had a management board meeting here and we brought the Elders from Paulatuuq to come out and see what the management board was all about. We had lunch at the Cache Lakes site, and all at once, there was about 300 caribou coming up to the group and walking by us! It was like they were checking on us, even. Te women were kinda scared; they were really close to us and some of them moved away and moved away and move away—you know, trying to evade them. You don’t really see caribous acting like that just coming up to you; usually, when you’re hunting, you have to sneak up on them. But here I guess they knew—or they felt—that we weren’t gonna hunt them, we weren’t gonna bother them. So, it’s just a diferent feeling they had, I’d say.

Tere’s many sites—diferent locations in the park— that were limited because we don’t have a landing strip, rather landing in a pond or lake. But, I love that spot where that burial site is at the Cache Lake site. I’ve mentioned that and it’s a feeling close to me. Like Keara Ruben was mentioning, “It’s good to be home again.” And I told her, “Yeah, it’s good to see your friends again.” You know, it’s sort of connection. And, that spot is perfect for someone to rest and oversee the animals going by. Te waterfall, the caribous moving because they were alivewhen we were alive.

In One Island Lake and Rock River, before you reach the river system in itself, there’s a deep canyon. When you’re walking up, it has a gateway to walk over across the river to the other side. But as soon as you get closer, it disappears and it’s a clif. It looks like an arch one can walk over without any land—it plays with your mind. Tat part is like an invisible staircase.

Connecting Youth And Elders

Te Park gives us a chance to close the gap between the youth and the Elders. In Paulatuuq, everybody is close together but there’s a gap between the Elders and the youth because they’re not really communicating with each other. Tey’re more independent. But out here, we’re trying to do that—making that connection to the youth and the Elders—to try to get them interested in the park and how we do things. For example, making nets, skinning the caribou, or working on filleting fish.

Most of the youth—their parents don’t have the time to bring them out on the land for harvesting, so they come up here and get hands-on experience. Tey practice, they learn, and once they get back to the community, or once somebody goes harvesting, they can go out with them, apply these skills and help the camp overall. Te youth have a lot of energy to burn, and they’re also willing to learn, so that’s the important part for me—it's the connection.

Te 25th anniversary has been a long process. Over the years it just kinda slipped by. It’s an accomplishment in itself. It’s been negotiated way back when the caribou were healthy and now the caribou population is less stable, but hopefully, it’ll get back to its original numbers.

One thing that was originally stated was that there were no structures to be built in this park. Te first big accomplishment was in 2000 when—through many, many hours of consultation—we changed that to have a basecamp here now in the park—a building, the facility to commence a group.

Te signing of the Tuktut Nogait Agreement has led to some benefits for the community such as the Northern store, the parks ofces, and also the residences. We had this building being built to have the ofce space for Parks and to have a Parks employee living in the community to better help us moving forward.

We can honour Elders and Signatories by having their name in the parks ofce—their pictures, the hard work they’ve done and plaques or something. Tey keep their spirit with us and help us move forward—and move ahead. If you look at them, you know what they’re trying to figure out and how they’re thinking with this park here. It kind of guides you. It gives you direction just by having the faces there of the people who have passed on. Tey kind of look down on us. What would they say? What do I have to say? It’s like a guidance councillor or something.

Looking To The Future

Especially for the Cultural Camp, in the future, we should have better lodging for them because a damp camper is not a happy camper, a cold camper. You know how it is if you’re cold. You see the weather change from snow, rain, and the sun. It can take a lot of energy out of you. I’d like to see maybe a boys and girls bunkhouse, just for them to be more comfortable.

Tis is a relatively young park—say 25 years—and during that time we’re wondering: how we can get more visitors into Tuktut Nogait? But the cost of coming up here throws some visitors of because of the isolation, the location. It’s one of the parks that has a pretty low visitor rate, but Inuvialuit have been hosting these Cultural Camps for several years now and we’re not registered as visitors.

It’s always a pleasure to come up here as a Cultural Host and pass on the knowledge, the land, the experience. Te people in Paulatuuq—it’s the first time some of them come up here and it just opens their eyes and they wonder what’s over the next hill. It’s just them appreciating what we have in Tuktut Nogait.

Advice For The Next Generation

Keep it as it is, well-maintained and keep it clean. Like the Elders say: the land will take care of the people who take care of the land. So, when that respect is there, it’s always up to us to look afer the land. Then it’ll help us and the future generations, through applying our knowledge to the youth and having that respect from the working group, to me, to them, and their future children. It’s ongoing and the learning process is going to be passed on from me to Julien, to Julien to his son… Hopefully they’ll—from a little child—grow up to have that same attitude: the respect of the land and the people. It’s about being brought up to become a person, and how they behave.

TUKTUT NURRAIT TANMAAQTARVIKTIGUN UQALIAQSAQ NAITTUARAALUK TUKTUT NOGAIT IN ONE WORD

All-encompassing. Everything you see, you kind of absorb it. It’s just all over.

—John Max (Mufa) Kudlak

You can see one way and get up on a high hill; you take all of what the people went through before us to see how they lived compared to us.