Lynn Lau
Northern News Services

Inuvik (July 08/02) - One of Inuvik's founding members came home for a visit last week.

Dick Hill, now retired in Ontario, spent 37 years in Inuvik. During his time here, he had a part to play in establishing the Inuvik Research Laboratory -- now Aurora Research Institute, the town council, the Centennial Library, the Chamber of Commerce, Inuvik TV (now privately-owned New North Networks), and the bookstore, Boreal Books.

And that's just to name a few.

The 72-year-old took the time last week to talk with News/North about books, and Inuvik's past, present and future.

Dick Hill helped the Centennial Library celebrate its 35th anniversary by unveiling the centennial logo last week in Inuvik. - photo courtesy of the Inuvik Centennial Library

News/North: When you left in 1995, you donated a huge collection -- over 5,000 items -- to the library. How did that come about?

Dick Hill: I've always been a bookie and enjoyed reading. Through reading, you become educated, the country becomes educated. So I had a personal library of which a lot of it was historical from this area, so I felt it was better here. So I made a donation.

N/N: How many years did it take you to accumulate the collection?

DH: Since 1963. I came with none, I left with none.

N/N: Do you miss your books?

DH: That's the frustration. I've gone out and re-bought several titles. I've started my new library in the south, my southern library.

N/N: Now, you're working on a book of your own about the history of Inuvik.

DH: It's the story of Inuvik to 2000. This is my sociological duty. I'm a researcher, so I enjoy gathering information and organizing, but when I come down to write it, I'm not clear on presentations. I'm not a writer. I've been working on this for 10 years. If I really had an excuse, it could be out in six months.

N/N: How did that start out?

DH: When you're in the library business, the book business, you're always collecting information, you're always separating fact from fiction.

N/N: You say you're a researcher. In what mainly?

DH: In school, I majored in Chemistry and Physics. But while in Inuvik, I became a generalist, everything from anthropology to zoology.

N/N: You came up here to open the Inuvik Research Laboratory, now the Aurora Research Institute. How did you move from that to all your other enterprises?

DH: It was when they installed the telephone poles. We always had local telephones, but before the '70s, all of Inuvik was happily independent from the rest of the world -- no TVs, no telephones, no Inuvik Drum. Life was simple. We had shortwave radio and you could send out telexes through the airport.

But then, they installed the telephones from the North to the South. So then all my bosses in Ottawa could phone me and check that I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. So around that time, I resigned and became an independent entrepreneur.

N/N: Since that time, you started a consulting business, Boreal Books, the Chamber of Commerce, and even a TV station. You really were a generalist.

DH: Which was the fun part about the Arctic, and still is.

N/N: How have things changed in Inuvik?

DH: There have been a lot of changes. The place is built up, they've put cement sidewalks down, paved the roads -- it's destroyed all the atmosphere, a lot of our pleasant character.

N/N: You're nostalgic for the old Inuvik.

DH: No, actually it's good. When it was a small town, we were like small town Alberta. When anything social happened, the whole community was there. As you get larger, you break up into groups -- sports groups, church groups, native groups. So, you become fragmented for better or worse. It's natural.

N/N: What do you think about self-government?

DH: It's no different from what's already here, so why spend so much on it?

N/N: Aboriginal people say, 'This one is going to be ours.'

DH: It's theirs already, it's yours and mine and theirs. It's ours. I'm a Trudeau-ite who says government is for all the people and one must look out for the minorities. Don't get me wrong -- I support native things, I support native people. I was a small white minority here for a while, so I'm sensitive. But we fought for self-government, and we got it in '69-'70, and then territorial government came along on a territorial-wide basis. So it's just the use of the word `self-government.' If we don't have self-government now, what do we have?

N/N: What sorts of things would you like to see happen in Inuvik in the years to come?

DH: Just to make sure that the education system stays superior. My wife had a phrase one time, 'Kids learn more in the streets than they do at school. So lets make sure we have good streets.' As a quick tourist, I don't provide answers and criticisms, but you certainly try to look for opportunities to maintain quality education and knowledge.

N/N: You come back every year. What do you miss?

DH: The people. I'm a social person. It's always fun to talk to people, feel sorry about the people who've passed on. I'm in the golden years, you know, a bit mellow. It was a fun time, 37 years -- a big part of my life. I like to see the changes and all the deja vu. I feel at home.