INUVIK - The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada will hold one of seven national residential school survivor gatherings in Inuvik next summer and community leaders are working together to get the event off the ground.

The event is planned for June 28 to July 1, 2011 and organizers expect it will bring upwards of 2,000 survivors to the town at an early cost estimate of more than $2 million.

Victor Stewart, executive director of wellness with the Gwich'in Tribal Council, is one of six members on the initial organizing committee, which is also comprised of representatives from the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, the GNWT, the town of Inuvik and the Metis.

Of the seven upcoming national events, only one was allotted for the North, and Stewart said it's appropriate for Inuvik to host because most, if not all, Beaufort-Delta residents have been affected by residential school since there were five schools operating in the region. A report prepared by the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation stated that the proportion of former residential school students in the Western Arctic and surrounding communities in the Sahtu is "one and half times greater than the next closest region, and more than double the proportion of any region in Southern Canada."

"The reason it's important to have it here is the amount of student survivors that attended school here, not just in Inuvik but in Aklavik and Fort McPherson and back in the 1930s, up in Herschel Island," said Stewart. "Especially the people from Nunavut, before the territories separated, they were brought over here and they basically spent their life here. They never did go home until they finished school."

Since the event location was announced in April, some in Nunavut have expressed disappointment that an event will not be held in that territory.

John Banksland, a member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's residential school survivors' committee from Inuvik, said the event was announced far enough in advance to allow survivors a year to fundraise their own transportation costs.

"Our mandate is quite clear under the settlement agreement. We don't pay for survivors coming in but that could change as time goes on," because of the territory's vast geographical distance and high travel costs, he said. "That's why it's important to try and fundraise as soon as possible."

The Commission has an operating budget of around $60 million.

Stewart said the commission has an obligation to ensure survivors can attend the conference.

"Their mandate is not just to provide a venue for storytelling, it's to make sure that each survivor has a chance to go to these events," he said.

The organizing committee had its first meeting to plan for the event on Friday, but Stewart said although organizers have a lot of work to do, anticipation for the gathering is not a high priority for most residential school survivors, as many are still trying to make sure they are properly compensated.

"People are still struggling trying to get compensated for years that they were in school and the government's saying they weren't," he said. That said, he added that the organizers don't want the gathering to end on a sombre note.

"We don't want to just hear sad stories - we want to do some celebrating too, and get past it."