Glen Korstrom
Northern News Services

INUVIK (Jul 10/98) - Museum and fine arts advisory board member Ruby St. Amand runs her hand across a carved wholly mammoth tusk given to her by her father, Eddie Gruben.

A carved toboggan is pulled by a carved dog sled team on the tundra of the tusk bottom.

"(My father) went several metres into the ground before finding the tusk. It broke in half but he sent it down south to have it examined and found out it was more than a million years old," St. Amand says.

On the tusk's base are the carved words, "This mammoth tusk was found 10 meters underground over a million years old. Carved by Charlie Avakana."

Gruben gave St. Amand the tusk for her birthday seven years ago and though she would like to place it where others can see it, yet she does not want anything damaging to happen to it.

As such, the sentimental value St. Amand places on the tusk is familiar to many Inuvik residents who place high personal value on photos, carvings and other historical items.

Still, the advisory board is starting meetings to determine what contents the future museum will house.

The museum itself will go where several grey 512s are connected in the old rehabilitation centre across from the Perry building, a site the town secured for a $1.00 lease.

"The best place to get (photos and stories) is when you sit with elders," said St. Amand.

"The elders who are 60 or 70 years old, they are the ones who pass on the information and they are the ones who know."

One idea for the new museum would be to have a recording of an elder telling a story about early days in Inuvik.

Another could be many photographs from the early days of the town hanging on a wall.

"If Grollier Hall didn't have a black name, those stained glass windows in the chapel would be nice to take a section of that and put it in the museum," said St. Amand.

She also noted the mural in the Dave Jones arena and a painting in the large family hall.

"The town is young enough that its history can still be found," said Mayor and board member George Roach.

Part of Roach's recent efforts to unearth heritage was a letter to beneficiaries of Anthony Darin who passed away earlier this year and who had many photos shipped off to Belgium.

"I think the letter saved the photos from the trash heap," he said.

Board member Derek Lindsay said an early town schoolhouse, which could be restored if there are any Heritage Canada grants, is intact along Industrial Road.