"Never say die": an ethnohistorical review of health and healing in Aklavik, NWT, Canada

Abstract

The community of Aklavik, North West Territories, was known as the “Gateway to the North” throughout the first half of the Twentieth Century. In 1959, the Canadian Federal Government decided to relocate the town to a new location for a variety of economic and environmental reasons. Gwitch’in and Inuvialuit refused to move, thus claiming their current community motto “Never Say Die”. Through a series of interviews and participant observation with Elders in Aklavik and Inuvik, along with consultation of secondary literature and archival sources, this thesis examines ideas of the impact of mission hospitals, notions of health, wellness and community through an analysis of some of the events that transpired during this interesting period of history.