Aklavik (Aug 14/06) - Anne Benoit was born in 1913; the year before the First World War began, when Robert Borden was Canada's eighth Prime Minister.

Looking back to 1913, it's easy to be impressed by how far it seems. For example, it was the year Henry Ford invented the assembly line chain. It also saw the invention of the crossword puzzle.

Anne Benoit, a popular resident of Aklavik, is the eldest resident at the Joe Greenland Centre and has maintained lifelong friendships in the community. - photo courtesy of Lindsay Wood

But perhaps most impressive is the fact Benoit has lived peacefully in Aklavik all this time; staying close to her family and maintaining friendships more than 90 years.

Marie Kendie, who has known Benoit more than 80 years, recalls life was very different when they met as children. "We were raised very traditionally," she said. "We didn't know the white man's ways until we went to school."

Kendie said she remembers living in traditional hunting camps with Benoit.

Caribou were tracked during the winter, and Kendie said it was every person's responsibility to help out.

Kendie said she remembers she and Benoit would help gather firewood and pack snow onto shelters.

They also helped to build fish camps, where the catch from river would be smoked and cured in sheds made of tree bark. "We had a wonderful life in our young days," she said. "Everybody had respect for one another and took care of each other."

Today, both women live in Aklavik's Joe Greenland Centre, where Benoit is the eldest resident. They still visit each other on occasion.

"We talk," Benoit said simply, as though there were nothing to it. Kendie is a bit more expressive.

"It's like we were sisters," she said. "Our children know each other, our families know each other."

Staff at the centre say the women are indeed very close.

When Kendie flew to Inuvik to visit her family recently, Benoit sat in the sunroom, waiting to see the plane.

"We lived together then, and we still live together now," Kendie said of a friendship that has lasted more than 80 years.