Friends, today marks the last day of the 19th Annual Spiritual Gathering in Deline, to remember the teachings of the prophet Ayha and the other three, who spent their lives in service of their faith in God.

The most famous of these four, and for whom the school and spiritual centre there is named, Ehtseo Ayha, was actually born further south in the Behchoko area, in 1857.

His people travelled north following the caribou herds and he ended up raising his own family in Deline.

There is a rare reverence for this one prophet in the small Great Bear Lake fishing village, where the devout from all over the North gather every year to honour the words and teachings of the prophet Ayha, and the others, who include Joseph Bayha, Joe Naedzo, also known as 'the Blind Prophet' and 'Old Andre' Andre.

Some of Ayha's teachings and prophecies involved the site near Deline where the uranium was mined and used to make the famous atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in August 1945, that effectively ended that catastrophic epoch in history.

There are many others of these spiritual leaders' teachings based on sharing and loving one another in a true Christian manner, which are the main subject of the Annual Spiritual Gathering in Deline.

As for myself I am glad to have helped out a little.

Our Sahtu In the Arts' project for this summer there is to retouch the sign at the Etseo Ayha House and to paint two large works based on images of The Four Prophets of Deline, one five-by-eight feet. This will be done with the able help of one of the youth there, Daniel Takezo and elder Joe Blondin, Jr., who provided many valuable insights into the lives of these holy people.

Mahsi cho!