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INUVIK
Aboriginal tourism is alive in Inuvik through tours of the Mackenzie River with a picnic of bannock and tea, snowmobile rides to experience the Arctic landscape and even through a spontaneous conversation with a community elder about what life was like in the Beaufort Delta years ago.

Visitors heat bannock on an open fire during Aboriginal Day last summer at Jim Koe Park. - photo courtesy of the GNWT

However, the trips, stories and experiences are not coined as aboriginal tourism, and this is where the Aboriginal Tourism Champions Advisory Council comes in.

Earlier this month, the newly-formed council visited communities throughout the territory, including Inuvik, to speak with tourism operators, development officers and aboriginal leaders about the tourism that takes place in the area and about developing an authentic aboriginal tourism industry in the North.

The advisory council is an independent body which is to advise the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment as the development of aboriginal tourism in the North progresses.

Gerry Kisoun, who is co-owner of Up North Tours, attended the information session in town. The visitors who come to him to book tours to Tuktoyaktuk, boat tours down the Mackenzie or on the land, want that authentic Northern experience.

"Aboriginal tourism, I think anywhere, is very important. I think a lot of people out there enjoy sitting down with one of our people somewhere and listening to some of the stories that we have and sharing our culture and some of our traditions," said Kisoun. "Take the boat on a tour and float down the Mackenzie River itself for awhile – thermos of tea, coffee, water, a little bit of bannock and tell some stories as we float along … That's part of our culture, sharing of our culture."

Exit surveys of visitors to the NWT rank that experience of aboriginal tourism, something unique to this place, as a top incentive for a trip to the territory.

Brenda Dragon, aboriginal tourism liaison consultant with ITI, said the meetings taking place throughout the NWT are attempting to engage those involved in tourism and the community to attend a forum being put on by the Aboriginal Tourism Champions Advisory Council on April 17 and 18 in Dettah.

The goals for the forum are to agree or find consensus on the definitions around aboriginal tourism and to come up with a framework for a five-year strategic plan.

Dragon said the meetings have made it obvious how aboriginal tourism has really solidified the preservation of culture in the region.

"They had a lot of pride," she said. "We're looking at having tourism operators, government, aboriginal governments and organizations represented so everyone has a voice at the beginning."

This is the first forum for the council, which was formed last July. The theme of the forum is a phrase Dragon said came up time and again at the information session, even before she introduced the theme: sharing our culture.

"Everyone used that line, I hadn't even said it but they all see sharing our culture as being tourism."

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