FORT SIMPSON - History came alive in Fort Simpson over the weekend as the village hosted the Territorial Historica Showcase.

Golia Cazon holds a fox pelt that was part of the project she did with Logan Wright called Trapping Now and Then in the NWT. The project won Cazon and Wright first place in the category of top Grade 4/5 projects. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo

Fort Simpson was the first community other than Yellowknife to host the event since it started eight years ago, said Christina Jervah, the chair of the executive committee that organized the event in the village.

The showcase featured 41 participants from Fort Simpson, Inuvik, Tulita, Deline, Behchoko and Yellowknife who displayed their projects in the hopes of being chosen as one of the five students to represent the territory at the nationals in Lethbridge, Alta.

On May 25, the projects and students were judged on criteria including quality, knowledge of the subject matter and public speaking ability.

"The quality of the projects are just tremendous," said Jervah.

All of the projects were well thought out and well researched, she said.

"The students are quite passionate about what they're doing."

From Fort Simpson, Julia de Pelham was chosen for the national team based on her project Life on the Land in 1967. Runners-up from the village who will act as alternates for the team include Nikita Larter with a project on traps, and Deidre Yakinneah with a project on birch bark baskets. Yakinneah won an additional award for having an outstanding project with an aboriginal theme.

A total of six other students from Bompas elementary school including Alicia Norris, Madison Pilling, Golia Cazon, Logan Wright, Morgan Lirette and Winona Letcher won other awards.

Cazon and Wright's project called Trapping Now and Then in the NWT stemmed from a desire to learn more about a subject.

Cazon said she knew a bit about trapping and has gone trapping before but was interested in looking into the subject further. Research for the project included interviewing her father, Michael Cazon, and Sandra Edda as well as searching on the internet.

Cazon said she learned how trapping was done in the past with deadfalls and that people travelled by canoe, snowshoe and dogsled. The furs were traded for items like cups, axes, pots and pans. Now trapping is done with metal traps and snowmobiles and people are paid money for the pelts, she said.

"I learned more about trapping and why people trap and how they trapped," said Cazon.

The project won the team an award for an outstanding project with an aboriginal theme and Cazon won first place in the category of top Grade 4/5 projects

Historica fairs are important because they promote and help preserve culture, said Yellowknife teacher Sean Daly, the president of the NWT Heritage Fair Society.

By doing their projects, students learn and discover more about a subject. Some decide to keep learning about a topic even after their project is over, he said.

"They become more aware of their world," said Daly.

The showcases for the projects also act as a cultural exchange where students can share their work with their peers, he said.

In addition to displaying their projects, the students also spent time touring the historical sites in the village including McPherson House and St. David's Anglican church. On Saturday the students spent half the day at a culture camp doing a variety of activities including plant identification, fishing, beading, moosehide tufting and bannock making.