Donna Ruben

In 2000, I was told about the ecotourism that was gonna happen in the park, so I put my name down. I was chosen, and there were four of us ladies that went out into the park in 2001 for a ten-day hike.

There was me, Sadie Lester, Tina Anikina, and Brenda Ruben. It was the four of us who did the hike. The experience was really something else. I would have never thought of hiking for that long, but my experience was so amazing—the scenery, the animals, the plants. The company was really great.

My fondest memory is when we made it to our destination, and we saw home—we all didn’t think we would make it! It was our first time ever experiencing this hike. And when we saw home, it was like: “Oh my god, we did it!” We all just cried with joy, and we were all telling each other we wouldn’t make it. Like, it was so nice. It was one of the greatest experiences I ever had. Just being there with the people who went made it worthwhile—everybody's warm hearts. We were all there for each other; if somebody got hurt, we would all just be there for each other like a big support group.

My favourite location in the park would be La Roncière Falls—that was the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. Back then I wish I had a camera or a phone, but we didn’t. When I first saw it, I was speechless. I never thought our community would have such beautiful land like that. It was so beautiful—just the falls, the water. Everything was just so nice. Great experience.

One cool thing about it was seeing wolverines, ‘cause I’d never seen wolverines up close before. I wish to see them in pictures, but to see them live was very nice. The scenery, the animals, the plants, and everything was just so amazing. I can still think it was just yesterday when we got back from our trip, and it was just so beautiful.

The one thing when we were out in the park when we did our hike is—we didn’t have protection, like a gun. All we had was bear bangers and bear spray, and we saw a lot of bears! It’s a good thing nothing came to us. That was the most scariest experience for me because we have a lot of bears here. But we all survived and were all here today. [laughs]

After we did the ten-day hike—maybe two weeks later—we were supposed to do a ten-day canoe trip. We tried. We did 2 days and the weather just got awful, so we had to go home. That was a good experience too, canoeing the river. But the weather played a big part and cancelled everything.

I went there last year; I was the cook. We went to Horton Lake—the big lake where the Nunavut and the NWT borders meet. That was really cool. It was huge, I was like: “I wanna go in between the border!” So, we went on the lake and here we are—Nunavut and NWT. That was so awesome. We got to go fishing; we canoed across the lake to the Nunavut area and took some pictures. It was really nice.

I enjoyed cooking on the trip. I don’t mind it but it was challenging to cook for people who have dietary restrictions and, we don’t have what they need in our store. It was my first experiencing how to cook for vegetarians and people with diabetes. I sure learned a lot about cooking I never knew much about, like the health part of it. Especially from the vegetarians and the diabetics. I know now if I applied through Parks for cooking, this is what I have to do, what I have to make. It was a good experience; I liked it and got to know the people very well. I would love to go there again one day; I’d love to go out and cook again. The park’s 25th anniversary makes me feel old!

[laughs] I love occasions like this; it’s so good for our community. I wish people could come out from other communities to come and see it, rather than just in pictures. That would be a great experience for anybody—everybody.

In the past 25 years, I don’t think anything’s changed because it’s a special place. What you saw then is what you see now. It’s so clean; the land is untouched by quads or snowmobiles. That’s how I see it. Respect it—it’s a respected area. You can’t just go there with a quad or a skidoo because we're not allowed to. If we do, we’re gonna destroy our land. It’s a place you can’t just go there and hunt. We all respect it. That’s how I see it.

It can be hard to get out there. You need to come to the park to see if there’s room on the charter to go. I know there’s meetings and stuff, but it would be great to take people out there just to see it, like our Elders and our young generations. I would love for them to go see what we’ve seen.

I wish more people can go out and see it, like how I’ve seen it. I know there’s a handful of people in town that went, but I think more people need to see it—to see what I’ve seen through my eyes. So beautiful.

It’s really exciting ‘cause Brianna Wolki and the Tuktut Nogait staff are doing a culture camp, so some of the kids are gonna go see what you’ve seen through your eyes. My son Ethan has been out there a couple of times and he loves it. He’s gonna go on again this year and he gets excited every year because he knows there’s this trip up to the park. I wish more kids were interested like him!

Our kids now—some of them don’t go out camping. Most of them stay in town. It’s important because to go out there and learn our culture is something that most of the kids don’t see or don’t like.

I know my son will be in my spot many years down the road and he’ll talk about the park like how I’m talking about it—in his own words—and he’s gonna say the experience is something else. To me, it’s like going down south or to an island somewhere south; it’s a totally different world when I step in the park.

The Future Of The Park

I haven’t been to other parks but what makes Tuktut Nogait so special is the scenery, the canyons, and everything—it’s just so beautiful. To me, the park means our culture, our way of living. The Elders pretty much taught us everything we know already, and the Elders were the backbone of us today. To me, the park is a special sanctuary that can’t regularly be touched by anyone else but us. It’s so amazing.

I think the future of the park is gonna be big. In my eyes, it’s gonna be a big thing. The way I see it—our young generations are going to be taking people out there to show how beautiful our park is. That’s what I see. My advice for the younger generation is: be who you are. If you wanna go out on the land, do it. Any chance you get, go out to the park, then you’ll see what we’ve seen. It’s so awesome; I can’t wait to see this magazine all done.

Tuktut Nogait is a beautiful place. You have to come and see it for yourself. Seeing pictures is totally different from seeing the park in person—totally different. I would love for people to come and see; that would be so awesome. Come and visit; come to the parks office and get things set up. Have locals take you out—that would be so awesome. Local tourism would be deadly; I would love to see more local tourism and taking people out. I want to see our community grow.