Later in the afternoon, we had some time before Andrea’s next appointment, so she brought us to the Aklavik old folks home (I can’t remember the building’s actual name). Andrea told us that this was a place she often visits while in town because the staff and residents are very warm and friendly. She said that the residents are great to chat with or have a good game of cribbage with. On this occasion though, she thought we would enjoy meeting one resident in particular: Mary Kendi, a 91 year old Teetl’it Gwich’in elder, known and respected for her beautiful sewing and knowledge of traditional stories.

When we arrived, Mary was sitting on her couch, working away at sewing something, and listening to the CBC radio program As it Happens. We knocked, entered, and were greeted by Mary’s big warm smile. She put down her sewing as she welcomed us, we introduced ourselves, and she told us to have a seat.

Below you see Mary chatting in a very relaxed manner, on the couch beside her is her sewing that lies against a photo of her and her granddaughter from some years ago. Mary says her granddaughter is planning to return to the north after being in Toronto (I think) for many years.

We asked Mary if she was working on anything special, and she said no, just keeping busy. Because she isn’t very mobile, she can’t be as active, and so she just makes a bunch of things with whatever materials are handy and these eventually get sold at craft fairs, though sometimes she gets special orders.

We asked if we could see some of her work, so she pointed to a box under her kitchen table and told us to pull it out. Below you see the contents of the box: several pairs of moccasins made of home-tanned moose hide, a pair of moose hide mitts, and a pair of beaver mitts.

Mary told us that over the years she has sold her work to people around the world. This didn’t come as much of a surprise because, as you can see, the bead work and designs are so beautifully intricate. This, even though her fingers appeared to be afflicted with rheumatoid arthritis!

In a bowl on the coffee table in front of her, we saw these (below) cute tiny pairs of mukluks. “Who wears these?” Andrea joked as she held them up. Mary laughed and said they were for broaches.

We sat and chatted with Mary for about half an hour and the whole while she was jovial and always cracking jokes, but some of what she told us about her life was no laughing matter. For example, her husband died—drowned—while fishing alone in the early 1960s and left her with three young children. To provide for her family she went out on the land to hunt and fish, just like the men. No doubt, she’s a woman of immense strength of mind and spirit.

Look at the smile lines around her eyes and mouth, and all the marks of time and experience. There in, like in the rings of a tree, lies knowledge that can never be recorded in any book or interview, but to be in its presence just made me feel good and miss my dead grandparents.