SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Two Yellowknife students will be bringing some of the most topical aspects of Canadian aboriginal and Northern history to the national stage in October.

Shayla Huynh, left, and Lucia Nakehk'o, 11, of Mildred Hall School show their Walking with Our Sisters learning fair project from last year. Nakehk'o will be representing the project in a trip to Ottawa in October for the Canada's History Young Citizen's program. - Simon Whitehouse/NNSL photo

Rae Panayi, 13, of William McDonald Middle School and Lucia Nakehk'o, 11, of Mildred Hall School will be among 26 students from across the country visiting Ottawa from Oct. 15 to 18 to present their history projects from last year at the Canada's History Youth Forum.

The girls will get to visit the war museum, Parliament Hill and Rideau Hall among other stops in the nation's capital. Canada's History Society, an organization which focuses on Canadian citizenship and promotes heritage fairs throughout the country, announced this week the two would be attending because of their research. Both projects scored very high in the Yellowknife Regional Learning Fair at Mildred Hall and the Territorial Heritage Fair in Tulita last spring.

Panayi's project called Protocols compared the exploration experiences of John Rae and John Franklin with the Tlicho in the 19th century and looked at the extent to which each respected the protocols and traditions of the aboriginal people.

"When I came up with it I was on a canoe trip last summer with my family on a small lake called Winter Lake," said Panayi. "Every night my dad would read us some of John Franklin's books. I kind of thought that Franklin didn't really care what (aboriginal people) think. He would then read us John Rae's books and you could tell that he cared more about them."

Rae's namesake is from John Rae and she said she took away an important lesson about how newcomers should relate to areas they visit.

"I think you should respect people's land whether or not it is in your country or another country," she said. "You need to follow their rules."

Nakehk'o, who will be representing the partnered project she did with Shayla Huynh, 12, called Walking with Our Sisters was inspired by an exhibit at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in January. The project focuses on murdered and missing aboriginal women in Canada.

"At first we wanted to do something on the residential schools but the more we thought about it we realized a lot of people haven't been doing a lot on indigenous women going missing," said Nakehk'o, adding she was surprised about the number of moccasin vamps that have been used to represent murdered and missing indigenous women in displays that have been travelling around the world.

"One thing I really learned is that there were over 1,000 vamps and I didn't know they were going worldwide with stops in U.S.," she said, referring to the project that also stopped at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre.

After winning at the fairs, both students had to submit videos about their projects. Panayi shared a video about her trip to Winter Lake on Tlicho land which traced the path of Franklin. Nakehk'o and Huynh presented a video about murdered and missing women set in various spots throughout the city.

Kea Furniss, who was in Grade 8 at William McDonald last year, was the overall winner at the territorial level but will not be attending.

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