Derek Neary
Northern News Services

Kakisa (July 26/02) - From oral history to Memorex -- Kakisa's biography has been recorded for posterity on videotape.

Entitled "Straight From the Heart," the documentary runs nearly two hours and features every member of the community.

Ruby Landry displays a copy of "Straight From the Heart," a video documenting life and times in Kakisa. - Derek Neary/NNSL photo

"We wanted to paint a picture of traditional land use, the place names and what they meant," Chicot said. "We got stories from the elders, sort of a history of the people from Tathlina."

The families in the area once lived near Tathlina Lake but relocated to Kakisa Lake decades ago.

Elders Freddy Simba, Daniel Chicot, Annie Chicot, Monique Providence, Johnny St. Pierre, Gabe Chicot, Sarah Chicot and Leon St. Pierre tell of their memories in interviews conducted at Kakisa Lake school. With a map and Dene writing posted in the background, most of the elders speak in Slavey with translators relaying their stories in English.

Not only is the video a treasure for residents, it serves another useful purpose, Chicot noted.

"A lot of the meetings I go to, I try to explain the community perspective to other communities and to industry," he said. "This (video) will explain some of where we are coming from in terms of traditional land use."

The community had already done land-use mapping, but "all you see on a map is just lines and dots," Chicot observed.

"We had to go a little further," he said. "It's a little bit of their history and their expectations of where we are going."

The undertaking cost in the range of $40,000-$50,000, according to Chicot. Contributions from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and language funds from the Deh Cho First Nations were applied to the video. The band hired a consultant from Hay River to co-ordinate the project, which took close to a year to complete.

"We're really impressed with the work that they've done and the things they put in the video," Chicot said.

Each household in the community is entitled to one copy of the video. The remaining copies will be for sale.