Yellowknife: the end of the journey, a start of another (part 1)

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In: Road trip 2018, Travel

Overcome with emotions and desire to soak in every inch of Yellowknife, my plan to blog every day quickly went out the window. Thank you to all those who tuned into my Facebook and Instagram Live feeds. 

I’ve been back in Alberta for less than a week. Now I want to share with you more of my photos and videos in a three-part series on my time in the northern city. Today I start with a few highlights – driving The Ingraham Trail and celebrating National Aboriginal Peoples Day and more.

Ingraham Trail 

Peppered along this 70-km road are parks, campgrounds, day use areas and hiking trails. It was built in the 1960s as a resource road according to my Google search. My plan was to drive in my yellow Chevrolet Spark the entire 70K and stop at all nine spots (Yellowknife River Day Use Area, Prosperous Lake Boat Launch, Madeline Lake Day Use Area etc). A couple of bikers warned me that I would be in for a bumpy ride. I didn’t want to risk breaking the windshield or getting stuck so I turned around with a couple of stops to go. 

Oops …. this man from Edmonton was looking for a big catch at Madeline Lake. He’s laughing so hard because I startled him and he dropped his northern pike back into the lake. We had a nice chat. He had just moved to Yellowknife to be closer to his wife’s family. He didn’t worry too much about the fish because he said the lakes are filled with them.
Cameron Falls is the one place that everyone told me I had to check out. It was a lovely spot for a short hike and spend the day marvelling at the glorious scenery.
Yellowknife sits on the Canadian Shield – a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. Do you remember your geology terms from grade 10 science? 
Pick a spot. If you wanted to, you could get lost and find yourself along the Ingraham Trail. Honestly one could spend hours in these tranquil spots.

I was really tempted to take the plunge when the sun came out … but I chickened out and I didn’t have anyone to record my jump. Because if it didn’t make it on the socials … it didn’t really happen, did it?

National Indigenous Peoples Day (formerly National Aboriginal Day)

My week coincided with National Indigenous Peoples Day, a statutory holiday in the NWT and the Yukon. (It was also the longest day of the year.) The North Slave Métis Alliance hosted a stage show at the Somba K’e Civic Plaza near City Hall. 

The celebrations kicked off at noon with a line up for the free fish fry. People started lining up hours before the festivities began. Every year volunteer organizations get up bright and early to prepare fish (not sure what kind) chili, bannock and corn for the masses. Great to see so many well-fed people. 

Like a true journalist, I heard an interview in progress and I jumped straight into the fray. I talked to the radio reporter after we turned off our devices and he was fine with my intrusion. I was thrilled to meet Bill Enge president of the North Slave Métis Alliance. 

Throat singing isn’t exactly a thing in Red Deer so I was thrilled to see these two women in action. The crowd – mostly of tourists – were mesmerized by it. Everyone had out their smartphones and cameras. 

Métis dancers from Edmonton performed a variety of traditional dances. This family-affair group put on a fun-filled and engaging performance. I am positive I have seen them perform somewhere before. The grandfather, head of the group, was a wonderful speaker. 
Cute children from a local school played. I didn’t recognize any of the songs but it sounded nice. The parents were on the sidelines cheering wildly. Loved it.
The drummers from North Slave were my favourite of the afternoon. (I mistakenly deleted the video on my Canon but I hope to recover it.) You can’t help but smile and tap your toes when you hear a drum. 
Ready for a round dance? I looked to the woman beside me and said, “let’s get up there.”

Bristol Monument 

You can spot the monument as you leave the airport on Hwy 3 and head towards the city centre. This was the first plane to land at the North Pole. It was donated to the city in 1970, and has never left this spot. Judging by all the graffiti, the area is well-travelled. 

The NWT Legislative Assembly

The NWT practices as a consensus government. Simply put  it is “a government ruled permanently by a minority government”. (NWT website) There is no party system and “official” opposition. This was very interesting to me so I jumped at the chance for a short tour of the building. Yes, I took notes! 

The NWT used to be governed by a travelling assembly. This building became the first permanent structure on the shores of Frame Lake in November 1993. It’s a glorious building with lots of light and open space. Here’s a quirky fact – the Great Hall can be rented by anybody as long as it is open to the public. 
Today the mace is a symbol of the NWT’s Legislative Assembly and its speaker. No proceedings can take place in the chamber without the mace. Originally it was designed as a weapon to protect royalty. When Nunavut (“our land” in Inuktitut) became a territory in 1999, the NWT commissioned three northern artists to create a new mace to represent the new Northwest Territories. The new mace was designed using materials such as northern diamond, beadwork, porcupine quillwork and Yellowknife gold. What I remember most from the tour are the pebbles – pebbles from the 33 NWT communities are inside the language, band, shaft and foot. When moved, they create a sound similar to a ran stick, representing the voices of the people. 
OK let’s talk about the polar bear in the room. I am glad someone asked why there was a polar bear hide on the Chamber floor. Our tour guide told us years ago a man asked for help with a polar bear terrorizing his community. The assembly did not help so the man went back to his community. The man eventually killed the bear, brought it back in the form of a bear rug to the assembly as a gift. No doubt they suddenly took notice of the polar bear problem. 

Everything inch of space from the windows, seating to the columns in the room are carefully thought out to represent the consensus government and the traditions of the Aboriginal people. I felt at ease and welcomed in this space (save for the dead animal hide on the floor).  

This is called the “room of secrets” or caucus meeting room features a unique acoustic system – there are no secrets because it’s impossible to whisper in there. The circular room also boasts a collection of A.Y. Jackson landscape paintings and Graham Shaw collages.

More to come … stay tuned for part two of my Yellowknife blog series. I will take you on a tour in Old Town and much more. 

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