Aklavik (July 14/03) - Born on a reindeer range, Alex Illasiak has moved in and out of Aklavik all his life.

Six years ago the 68-year-old father of eight decided to retire. He's been busy volunteering his time with community organizations, including a second term as the Beaufort Delta Education Council chair.

News/North: Where are you from?

Alex Illasiak: I was born northeast of Inuvik and raised on the Reindeer Range. My dad was a reindeer herder and I was born within the Reindeer Range.

N/N: When you were a child did you travel with your father?

AI: Yes, we travelled. We pretty much followed the reindeer wherever they went, although they did have Reindeer Station where the families stayed in housing. The herders, the fathers, went back and forth to the herd from them in the winter. Our summers were spent on the coast at the bay where each year they would have a round-up.

N/N: How did you end up in Aklavik?

AI: Aklavik was the government centre at that time.

Although I was born on the river, the project manager at Reindeer Station phoned in my registration, and not being very imaginative, the Aklavik registrar at that time listed me as born in Aklavik.

N/N: How did your father become a reindeer herder?

AI: In 1935 he was starting to have a fairly large family and being very portable and being an outside man this was ideal. Around that time the regular work day seemed to be the thing to do, not hunting and trapping.

N/N: Did you enjoy reindeer herding as a child?

AI: I don't really remember too much. Every once in a while I would take note in spring and summer. In the spring we would move to Richardson Island. I would take note of spending springtime on the western edge of the Husky Lakes. Still out of the treeline it was very pleasant. In summertime on the Richardsons, dad would tend to the reindeer ... He would try to keep track of them .... The herds varied between 10,000 and 12,000.

N/N: Where were you between your childhood and moving to Aklavik for retirement?

AI: I married in Aklavik in 1960. In the early 1950s I went to high school in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. I went to college in Calgary. I studied commercial wireless for radio operating. I left home in 1950 and came back in '55 with a trade I could use in the North.

N/N: What did you like about your job?

AI: I could move wherever I wanted to go. The trade made me portable. I worked for the first two-and-a-half years in Cambridge Bay. I came home and started working for Department of Transportation as a radio operator on the NWTNY radio system.

N/N: What brought you back to Aklavik?

AI: I retired in 1993 at 58 after 38 years working. Originally I retired to Hay River, but I couldn't seem to settle down. Retirement wasn't taking hold.

I looked for work and did get some work. I got a three-year contract in Tuk as the Inuvialuit land administrator.

N/N: Why did you volunteer to work with the local education council and then the Beaufort Delta Education Council?

AI: I went through 12 years in the residential school system. Education at that time was operated by the government with no local input, no local advice and no community consultation.

After seeing the board operate from a distance I found that the Ministry (of Education) was running our system region-wide. It was a very drastic change from the system I went through in the 1940s. It peaked my interest and I've been interested ever since.

We are here because of the children. Whenever we have a mission in mind we should keep the children in mind.

N/N: What motivates you?

AI: Now I've dropped the other groups that I was involved with the main thing is to keep myself busy.

Knowing other board members from throughout the region seems to be interesting. Involvement with the communities keeps me going.

N/N: What do you like about the BDEC structure?

AI: The great thing about it is that it is legislated by the NWT Education Act to oversee operations.

The one thing that's recently happened is that we just adopted a five-year strategic plan we will use to move in a general direction.

N/N: What concerns you about education in this region?

AI: The competency of our students and the retention of our teachers, which is a problem. Throughout the region housing for our teachers is also a problem.