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Finding insight
Don Hunter's vocation took him North

Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services

Yellowknife ( Jun 05/00) - Sometimes people go to work every day, following a dreary, dry routine, not knowing why they are really there or what they are truly accomplishing.

Others acquire a keen awareness about the work they do and consider it more than work, a trade or an occupation. Don Hunter considers what he did for most of his life a calling in the true sense of the word.

He came to Yellowknife in 1966, on the crest of one of the waves of southern pioneers opening up the North. There weren't many people here then, but there "was liquor, wildlife and corrections in that order, so to speak," laughed the 71-year-old.

Corrections was Hunter's calling and in one conversation it is easy to get a sense of his deep respect for what his work means. You also get a hint of the depth of his experience.

After 34-years in the field, Hunter's experience with criminal behaviour and its roots tell a compelling story.

"We were providing a new and important service to the people of the Northwest Territories," Hunter said about his early years travelling the court circuit.

"There are different perspectives among aboriginal peoples coming from smaller communities. The anti-social crimes are more glaring and more serious in the sense that they can't hide away in a city ghetto or something like that, so people need a great deal of individual attention and community understanding.

"Particularly in the remote Inuit communities, the language barrier was very difficult and the culture different. They had a strong concept of sharing and giving because their closeness meant survival in a very harsh environment.

"They faced a lot of social problems as their traditional life changed, as they changed from nomadic people to townsmen. And, of course, their great nemesis was the excessive use of alcohol...it will always be there as a constant factor but more and more people are rising above it."

It's the ability to always see the positive side of people, their unrevealed potential and worthiness, Hunter said, that neutralizes the inevitable discouragement one might feel at times in his work. After spending his life working with criminals, young offenders and social outcasts, Hunter hasn't lost that ability. His thoughts on giving people a second chance are as inspiring as receiving one.

"Human beings are so intricate and fascinating and there's no end to the human potential," he said.

"One of the things that I'm very grateful for is that I've done what I've wanted to do. The way I feel is, my dollar is a byproduct of the central interest of something I want to do. I'd almost do it voluntarily and in that sense I've always been very happy with my profession.

"Just like most people, they get into difficulty and they need to have more recognition of their own capabilities and potential. There are a lot of positive forces out there helping people to recognize that."

Hunter was born in 1929 and raised near Calgary, where his father operated a garage. At that time, in order to finish high school and realize his own potential, he moved to Calgary and attended Mount Royal College.

He started out in the teaching program at the University of Alberta's Calgary campus, but in 1953 went to work with the children's aid department in Calgary as a probation officer.

That was when he found his vocation and became aware of the assets he brought to working with young people.

Eventually Hunter started the first adult and juvenile probation branch in Red Deer, Alta. After working as a senior probation officer in Edmonton for several years, he came North.

"I was one of four probation officers," he said. "I can remember a very dicey flight into Fort Simpson in a DC-3 and a flight I didn't know if I would survive out of Aklavik."

He talked with humour about his experiences travelling the court circuit by airplane in the North, saying there were never any real serious mishaps.

He also recounted some of his memories of new experiences in the North.

"You remember things like getting your first Northern parka and knowing who it was who got the wolverine for the trim... everything was highly personalized. I remember having a pair of mukluks made and I never wore them. They were a beautiful piece of art and that's the way they'll remain."

Hunter was involved in opening the first probation office outside Yellowknife, in Hay River, in 1968. After working in corrections in the eastern Arctic for seven years starting in 1970, Hunter came back to Yellowknife until his retirement in 1995.

"It was new and it was a challenge," he said about his early impressions of the North. "It was pioneering in the true sense. You had to be there and you had to perform. We had one magistrate or judge and the court was a court of record. All pre-sentence reports were given verbally and they had to stand (up to) scrutiny.

"That was just part of the drama of courtroom activities at that time. It was a very challenging adventure and you felt you were part of a new and positive development."

Lately, Hunter has been letting his optimism seep from professional initiatives into personal efforts, such as an ongoing struggle with cancer, his role in creating a cancer support service in Yellowknife and his retirement.

He and wife Dolores own a home near Courtenay, B.C. and although Yellowknife is home, the RV is a home-away-from-home for the couple. Hunter also enjoys hunting and has travelled a lot in order to enjoy the sport.

Hunter is also the vice-president of the local senior's society and represents the local organization on the territorial society.

He has seen the corrections system shuffle under the umbrella of the department of social services back to justice, but, more importantly, he's seen changes in people.

He began a teacher and left it for the opportunity to work in corrections but is still a teacher as he explains those changes and reasons why they have occurred.

"There's a lot of things that have happened," he said. "A lot of the women have probably been more capable of attaining education and moving ahead through social-problem areas than the males, who have had a great loss in the sense of worth by being able to follow traditional skills but lacking education to be able to compete and provide in the (current) workplace. The native person does not come from a tradition of competition but one of sharing.

"If you are from any culture and you start out in life under great depravation where life is at a subsistence level, you don't have an education and don't think in terms of a competitive world or the objectivity of any kind of trade...then you're very vulnerable to being exploited."

His understanding of these social issues has been gained through personal experience.

"I've had some people who've committed murder and had to deal with family members after a tragedy like that when they close the whole house off," he said. "People are screaming and those are traumatic things - things you don't want to remember or describe.

"There are very positive things, in which people have turned their lives around. They are people you never thought would get in control of their lives...and it comes like rain on a field in spring - they blossom and turn around.

"They have a depth and understanding and they are just invaluable people because the moment turned and something happened.

"You just never know when people are going to come through the darkness and into their lives."