New life at the falls
Park gets closer to meeting requirements
of Nunavut Agreement
Beth Brown
Northern News Services
Monday, December 19, 2016
KUGLUKTUK
Kugluk Territorial Park is on its way to meeting the requirements on the Nunavut Agreement.
A six-person Community Joint Planning and Management Committee spent this year establishing a park management and master plan for the historic site.
The plan is required to conform to the Inuit Impact Benefit Agreement (IIBA) governing parks and conservation areas in the territory. The committee was made up of Kitikmeot Inuit Association, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. and Government of Nunavut representatives.
The park, located 13 km outside of Kugluktuk, is not a new development, but this new set of plans will bring the park up to par with Nunavut legislation.
"It's already a park. But in terms of its conformance to the IIBA and the land claims agreement, they are practically there. They've done the work for the master plan, the management plan and the resource inventory. They are pretty well done." said David Monteith, director of territorial parks.
The committee draft has been submitted and the hamlet of Kugluktuk has provided a letter of support, he said.
"The next step for them is to take both the master plan and the management plan to the Nunavut Joint Planning and Management Committee to review those two documents." he said.
This umbrella committee ensures that community committees are on the same page on how such documents are to be developed in the territory.
"If they are happy with it, then the minister reviews them and signs off."
All territorial parks require this kind of plan, but the problem with Kugluk was that the documents were started prior to the creation of Nunavut.
"The area was identified in 1969 for protection, because of its historic and cultural importance," said Edna Elias, chairperson of the committee.
"Pre-division, the government of the day in isolation was developing the master and management plan without the input of the residents of Kugluktuk," she said. "We had draft documents to work with, so we didn't start from scratch, which was really to our advantage."
One priority for the committee was to change the perception of the park.
"Most people know it as Bloody Falls on the Coppermine River," Elias said.
The name is in remembrance of a 1771 massacre, during which a group of Chipewyans overtook an Inuit fishing camp and killed everyone.
"Elders on the committee in the early development of this park wanted 'Life at the Falls' as a theme and the focus of attention and not the Bloody Falls as southerners and historians know it," she said.
"But the history of Bloody Falls and the massacre of the Inuit people will be on the website and interpretive signage in the community."
The community also completed a survey to choose a spelling of the park name. The community poll is in, with plans to keep the park as Kugluk Territorial Park, said Monteith.
"Now it just needs to be endorsed by the community."
This summer the territory worked with the Museum of Nature to develop an inventory of flora in the park. There was also extensive work done to boardwalks and bridging.
"We're happy with where we are at. The next phase is, we are looking at getting the draft plans to the final approval of the minister responsible, and then start thinking celebration and implementation," said Elias.
"Our young people are carrying on the tradition of harvesting at the falls by fishing and berry picking. It's a beautiful spot."
