Union supports Deline
CAW national president visits exhibit

Malcolm Gorrill
Northern News Services

Deline (Apr 10/00) - The national president of the Canadian AutoWorkers union met with various chiefs and officials early last week to show support for Dene Nation efforts to have the federal government "recognize" a tragedy in Deline.

Buzz Hargrove said, "We're here to express our support for their efforts to get the government to recognize the tragedy that was created."

The world's first uranium mine was developed on the eastern shore of Great Bear Lake in the early 1940s. The mine was a major source of uranium for the development of the atomic bomb, although American and African mines also supplied ore for the war effort.

Young Dene were used to haul ore from the Radium mine from the 1930s through the 1960s. Since then, Deline Dene have reported a high rate of cancer deaths among the men who worked as ore carriers.

"We've just joined them in this fight," Hargrove said.

"We've supported the exhibition that's put together by their people.

"We put some financing into that to help them make their case. We're going to help them move it across the country, so it gets a broader audience."

Last week, Hargrove briefly visited the exhibit, entitled The Suffering.

Hargrove chatted with Cindy Kenny-Gilday, who created the exhibit.

"It's my story. Instead of writing a book, it's based on two years of intense research," Kenny-Gilday said.

"This is the story of my people, told by them. I'm just a facilitator."

Kenny-Gilday put up the exhibit in December 1999, and took it down last week. She received funding for it from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Native Women's Association and RWED.

"I still had to borrow money to finish the exhibit," she said.

Kenny-Gilday said the exhibit will be shown elsewhere, probably in the fall, but that talks are still ongoing as to where it will go next.