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LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
The newest exhibition at the OSC Gallery in Fort Simpson is challenging people to reconsider an important event in the region and Canada's history.

Elizabeth Hardisty of Fort Simpson stands with the portrait of herself that is part of the exhibition titled Inquiry at the OSC Gallery. Hardisty worked for the Dene Nation doing land use mapping of the Deh Cho, which was used as evidence during the Berger Inquiry. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo

Inquiry, which opened on Jan. 25 at the gallery, looks at both what the Berger Inquiry meant 37 years ago when it was taking place and what it means today. The exhibit includes photographs by photographer Linda MacCannell, historical photos by Michael Jackson, Justice Thomas Berger's special counsel during the inquiry, and work by students from across the Deh Cho region.

The exhibition is part of a larger project, which also produced an interactive website about the inquiry. Last summer MacCannell, Jackson and Drew Ann Wake, who covered the inquiry as a young CBC reporter, travelled to all of the schools in the Deh Cho engaging students about the inquiry. The students helped to create material for the website through a number of means, including interviewing elders who spoke at the inquiry.

The exhibition follows a theme that came out at the inquiry, said Wake. The debate was about the continuity of life on the land compared with wage work.

At the time, the pipeline companies said people in the North had to take the pipeline jobs now, while the communities said they wanted to make the decision for themselves and combine life on the land with wage work, she said.

Featured in the gallery are seven near-life-size portraits of people who were involved in making the argument for the Dene including Liidlii Kue First Nation Chief Jim Antoine, Elizabeth Hardisty, Rene Lamothe and Jim Thom, as well as inquiry staff journalists who reported on Jackson, Peter Gorrie and Patrick Scott. Each portrait is accompanied by a booklet with excerpts from the person explaining their part in the inquiry.

There are also nine smaller portraits of people who spoke to Berger, or one of their relatives. As part of the project, students interviewed the nine people, including figures like Acho Dene First Nation Chief Harry Deneron and Trout Lake elder Edward Jumbo, and asked them if they still feel the same way they did during the inquiry. Video clips and transcripts from the interviews are part of the exhibition.

Dene worldview

The project was funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and B.C. Film and Media with support from the Dehcho Divisional Education Council. Terry Jaffray, the education council's superintendent, said she thinks the exhibition will help students and other people understand the Dene worldview.

The land and keeping tradition and culture alive is incredibly important for the Dene, said Jaffray.

The goal, however, is not to keep things as they were but rather to bring their culture forward with them, she said.

This is the first stop for Inquiry. It will open on May 9 – the 35th anniversary of the release of the Berger report – at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife.

Inquiry may also go on to show in Vancouver and Calgary.

"For many Canadians this is a fresh look at their country," said Wake.

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