First issue ready for Our Home

Page 11

It all started with three unemployed friends reminiscing about old times. While lamenting the by-gone days of the now defunct Dannzha newspaper (also know as the Yukon Indian News), the trio, who all share a communications background, also noticed a lack of First Nation representation in the 1998 Yukon Gold Rush celebrations and within Northern media outlets.

One idea led to another and it didn't take long for these entrepreneurs to take action by travelling the length of the Alaska Highway to visit and consult communities on the possibility of creating a publication by Yukoners for Yukoners.

Their ambitious project resulted in the establishment of the Society for Advancing Yukon Culture & Communications, a collective of Aboriginal communicators offering various services from video production to special events planning. Their flagship product is a new, glossy, full- color magazine called Our Home.

The premiere edition, to be launched this spring, will focus on celebrating Yukon First Nations people's role and participation in both the territory's past and future. It will feature articles on Aboriginal partnerships with the North West Mounted Police, involvement in building the Alaska Highway and work on the White Pass & Yukon Route's sternwheelers. Historical figures, contemporary artists, Elders and war veterans will also be profiled.

"These are things that First Nations people are very proud of but never get reported," said one of the Society's founding members, Eileen Vance-Duchesne. "It is always the negative stuff that is happening in the communities and yet there is so much good stuff going on. We thought, 'How can we as a society do something to improve the situation and decided to dedicate the first issue to First Nations people."

While First Nation content will always be featured, future issues will have a broader scope to include non-Aboriginal cultures and regions such as Northern British Columbia and Alaska. The Society however, has decided to omit politics and partisanship from its projects. Its intent is to provide a more complete picture of northern people and lifestyles than what is offered by mainstream media.

"We are here to market all the things that the Yukon has and that we are proud of," added Vance-Duchesne, who is also Our Home's executive director. "We have some very unique partnerships and we have a very diverse culture. . . If at the very least this publication shows people that, then I feel that we will be successful."

Benefiting from a one-time start-up grant of $20,000 from the Yukon territorial government's Community Development Fund, the Society concentrated on becoming self-sufficient and economically viable.

"If you look at past publications, they were government funded under the Native Communications Program," noted Vance-Duchesne. "We don't want Our Home to be that. We definitely have our subsidies, but we want Our Home to be the economic arm of our society."

The fact that the society has successfully raised more than $37,000 in advertising revenues testifies to the large need, support and faith people have in the publication despite the fact that it does not yet exist.

From its humble beginnings, the project has blossomed quickly to involve more than 60 people, directly or indirectly in the publication's production, including a 20-member Elder Advisory Committee. Vance-Duchesne stressed that Elders were key to the publication's success by providing vital resources, direction and advice.

"They believe in documenting our history and they wanted to be a part of bringing the culture to the world," she said. "We operated very much under their direction and I think in the end you are going to see some very proud Elders walking around town."

To illustrate, Vance-Duchesne explained how her interest in Kate Carmacks evolved into a powerful story. As a writer, she found many portrayals of Carmacks to be sad, depressing and incomplete. On researching the mysterious woman's life, she discvered that Carmacks was actually very influential on the Gold Rush scene and that many Elders credit her with the gold discovery that launched the largest and most famous Gold Rush in history. Ironically, last autumn, the three men credited with discovering the gold were inducted into the Mining Hall of Fame.

"The Elders were really vocal about (Kate's exclusion) and felt it is time to allow Kate to take her rightful place in history," said Vance-Duchesne. "The Elders do not want to discredit the men, they just want Kate to be included and I think that is a very noble thing for them to do. I mean, if history is going to be told, let's tell it the way it was."

The project's economic spin-offs have included the employment and training of local Native people and the hiring of local resources and businesses to pull the publication together.

"We are trying to do our own share in boosting the economy in our own way," explained Vance-Duchesne. "How do you boost the economy? By investing in your community. You create employment and training and that is what we are doing."

Approximately 20,000 copies of Our Home will be freely distributed to tourism centres and First Nation communities.

Vance-Duchesne promised that the 80-page magazine will be sure to please.

"There is no doubt in my mind that people want this publication," she said. "And I guarantee that no one will be disappointed."