Missionary printers update Dene dictionary

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Looks can be deceiving.

The unassuming offices of Northern Canada Mission Press, set serenely among spruce trees just west of Prince Albert, are actually the nerve centre of a self-sufficient printing operation that is producing books for Aboriginal people from the Inuit in the Northwest Territories to the Incas in Peru. Kit Elford, administrator of NCM Press, recently announced the publication of an updated version of the first English-Dene dictionary ever created. It's a project that's close to his heart - on the cover of the dictionary are the names of his parents, L.W. (Bud) and Marg Elford. The Elfords were Baptist missionaries set to go to Papua New Guinea in 1952, when the trip was postponed.

Instead, they came to western Canada, where they lived and worked with the Dene people of Churchill, Man., northern Saskatchewan and Cold Lake, Alta. and eventually constructed a written version of the language. They then created a English-Dene dictionary that's still in use today.

"There was nothing on paper before that. They developed the character list and everything." said their son.

Elford said his parents are now retired and living back in Cold Lake, but they've been working with other contributors to expand the nearly 20-year-old version of the dictionary. The 1999 version will be about 60 per cent larger and will include a section explaining the terms used in the Book of Mark - a common resource in Dene language classes.

Elford said it's very gratifying to be a part of the project his parents started so long ago.

"To see what they put their life into - and it's not only that. I just like publishing literature for Native people. That gives me satisfaction," Elford said.

Tim Gradin helped co-ordinate the new dictionary and has worked as a missionary in the north.

He said while the Elfords were the driving force behind the dictionary, it has also been the cumulative effort over the years of too many people to mention. He added while the new version is an improvement, there is more to do.

"It still needs to be added to and be refined," he said.

Gradin said he knows from his experience with the Dene language in Stony Rapids that there are differences in the language between northern Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta and even the newer version of the dictionary has some gaps.

"It's got a ways to go," he said.

Elford said there is now a push on to create another Dene dictionary that will help people translate from Dene into English. Because of the creation of the first written form of Dene and the Dene dictionary, NCM Press, which can create books in their plant right from editing the manuscript to creating the cover art to actually producing soft or hardcover books, has been able to publish many other Dene books. Elford said they were first developed to help missionaries learn the Dene language, and are now commonly used as learning resources in remote northern communities.

He said he gets a lot of feedback from Dene teachers in those schools and come back to him to order thousands of dollars in orders for other Dene materials like primers and grammar books. And North American universities both north and south of the border are using the books in their Aboriginal language classes too, including the University of Saskatchewan, he said. Northern Canada Evangelical Mission also publishes books in other Aboriginal languages like Cree, and has been publishing a series of youth-orientated books called The Eagle Feather Series, since 1996. The books are for and about Aboriginal youth and revolve around issues they face in everyday life, like traditional culture and poachers. Gospel music tapes and compact discs are also products of the Mission, as are books for Aboriginal people in Central and South America like the Incas in Peru.

Northern Canada Evangelical Mission was started in 1945 in Buffalo Narrows, and has grown to include 350 workers across Canada, the printing operation and a mini-fleet of four airplanes to take he missionaries to remote communities.

Elford is also in charge of a distribution system that bookstores in 11 communities from Quebec to Alberta and the Northwest Territories.