Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

TUKTOYAKTUK
Tuktoyaktuk has lost one of its most well-respected residents. Helen Gruben died Sept. 9. She was 81.

Helen Gruben, a respected Tuktoyaktuk elder, died on Sept 1 at the age of 81.

Gruben was well known in the community for her service to others, devotion to her church, dedication to education and as a trailbreaker for women in local politics.

"My Mom was a person who cared for everybody in the community," said her son Roger Gruben, adding she comforted others living through various issues, such as the loss of a loved one. "If they needed comfort, then she was around."

Roger Gruben said his mother would give advice to people, but also set an example by helping and respecting others and treating everyone with kindness.

"So she showed them how it could be done," he said. "Mom was a well-respected person and everyone in the community is missing her for sure."

Among the many notable accomplishments in her life, Helen Gruben was the first female councillor on the Tuktoyaktuk Community Council.

"To her, it was just moving on and having women represented more on things that happen in the community and being on the town council was just another step for her," said Roger.

Helen also looked after the Anglican Church in Tuktoyaktuk for over 50 years by doing such things as making sure it was ready for services, lighting the fire and handling the affairs of the church.

She and her late husband, Willie Gruben, also believed in the importance of education, even while teaching their eight children the traditional lifestyle of hunting, trapping and fishing.

"They said, 'Times are changing, and you also need to get an education in addition to the skills we're teaching you of living off the land,'" said Roger. "So she stressed the importance of education and she stressed that to all the young people around, and she actually proved that point by going back to school herself at the age of 61."

That was in 1991 when she took a 10-month college course in Yellowknife and graduated with a certificate as a community health representative, and then worked at the Tuktoyaktuk Health Centre.

Helen was born at Napoyak, a bush camp in the Mackenzie Delta between Inuvik and Aklavik. Her mother was Gwich'in and her father was an Inuvialuk adventurer and trapper. Her heritage was expressed in her Inuvialuktun name, Daliq.

Her father owned a schooner and she often told her family stories of travelling in the vessel on the Mackenzie River and the Arctic Ocean.

In 1949, Helen and her husband moved to Tuktoyaktuk where she often worked as a cook for the school, companies and other organizations, and was a seamstress.

Tuktoyaktuk Mayor Merven Gruben also paid tribute to Helen, who was his father's aunt.

"She was a very well-respected elder," he said, noting she was very friendly and very approachable. "There's definitely a void with her passing."

The mayor noted Helen had many roles in the community, and was a mentor to numerous people and assisted anyone who needed help.

"She was always there," he said. "You could call her."

The mayor said the hamlet will do its best to acknowledge the contributions made by Helen, including with a plaque, and recognize her for what she did for many people.

"In her life, she was a person that never looked for any recognition in anything that she did," Merven Gruben said. "She did a lot for the people, but she never asked for anything."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.