Billy Day: Elder environmentalist honored by award.

Why did Billy Day dedicate his life to protecting the environment? Because at an early age he developed a deep love of nature. Because he was drawn down this path by others. Because he could.

When Day was honored by the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation with the achievement award in the area of environment, this Inuit man from Inuvialuit, N.W.T. was filled with pride and humility.

Day knows the awards are the highest honor the Aboriginal community bestows upon its own achievers. He said he cannot take full credit for the honor.

"There's an awful lot of other people involved, like our ancestors who passed down information to us, and a lot of younger people than myself that I worked with over the years," he said.

Day was born in the 1930s in the Mackenzie Delta. He still calls that region home. It was in that beautiful country that Day's lifelong love of the environment blossomed at an early age.

"I was born at a time when the Elders were still passing on information to the younger generation," explained Day. "My mother used to take me out visiting to families and Elders. A lot of times the stories that were being told were meant for me as a child. This is the way information was passed on from generation to generation."

Those early sessions also developed in Day an appreciation for the oral traditions of his people.

"At a very early age, I grew to respect our Elders and fell in love with the idea of sitting around and talking with them," he said.

When he grew into a man, Day spent 14 years working for the federal government's department of Social Services, then known as the Welfare department. In the beginning, Day covered a huge territory.

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"When I first started I was the only welfare worker of 14 settlements," he said.

"I did get a couple of promotions when I was working the department," said Day. "But this took me away from talking to people. And I think this helped me make up my decision to go back on the land again."

In 1975, Day and his large family returned to the land, resuming a traditional life of hunting, trapping, fishing and whaling. His wife and 10 children were glad to have him at home and glad to share in his activities. He taught his children by example.

"Every chance we got, we went back out on the land because I think, sometimes you can talk and talk and talk about how to handle guns safely and this sort of thing, but if you don't do it physically, sometimes all that talk doesn't mean too much," said Day.

Years later, even the extended family is involved in those traditional pursuits.

"I have a lot of grandchildren that still go out on the land every chance they get," said Day. "They are still in love with nature."

Day, who had always been interested in the rights of his people, could not indulge in the politics until he left his government job.

Day would become the last president of the Committee for Original People's Entitlement, a committee established to protect the Aboriginal community's cultural and political rights and to protect their lands. After the Inuvialuit Final Agreement came into effect in 1984, Day would also work tirelessly to promote its goals.

"But I couldn't do that until after I left the government," said Day.

"At that time, the territorial government was run by the commissioner. He had made up his mind that if we decided to work with any political institutions that we would be without a job. Unfortunately, at the very beginning, I couldn't afford to give up my job."

But by 1984, not only was Day free of his government position, but attitudes had changed dramatically as well. By then, "We got a lot of co-operation. It's not an easy job and I don't think you can accomplish things sometimes on your own because you have to have people to work with, to talk with, and so on," he said. "We have many joint committees, half from the government and half from the Inuvialuit region."

Day had good reason to be pleased with the outcome of those committee meetings.

The agreement established goals to preserve Inuvialuit cultural identity and values within a changing northern society; to enable Inuvialuit to be equal and meaningful participants in the northern and national economy; and to protect and preserve the Arctic wildlife, environment and biological productivity.

"I felt quite proud because I still think we have quite a good agreement," said Day.

Day's other achievements reached far beyond the borders of his home territory. He has been particularly active in promoting the value of country food consumption and dealing with the contaminants issue from an Arctic perspective. In 1996 he participated in a meeting in California that resulted in the founding of the World Council of Whalers.

That California jaunt did not mark the beginning of Day's travels. He had already been on the road for more than three decades, since forming a drum dance group in the early 1960s.

"I've done a lot of travelling with them throughout Canada and a few places in the U.S.," he said.

The formation of that group happened almost by accident.

"An Elder came to me one day. We had to put on a drum dance for some students. The guy in his 80s, one of our drummers, came to me and said, 'Billy, 10 years from now, somebody comes and asks you to put on something, what are you going to do?' So we started working together and formed a group," said Day.

At the time, the local Aboriginal youth had little interest in traditional pursuits.

"When I first started out, all my members were around the ages of 60 and 80," said Day. "We are very fortunate now. We have a lot of young people who are interested," he said. Day's own grandchildren and great-grandchildren show a keen interest in the drum dance group.

"It does really make me happy to see it carry on," he said.

Day has been a long-time advocate for the conservation of fish and marine mammals, the protection of land and water, and the use of traditional knowledge in achieving these goals. He has seen major changes in the attitudes toward the environment.

"What caused a lot of people around here to open their eyes was because everything was [run] from Ottawa," said Day. "Oil companies were coming in and setting up their rigs and doing their drilling and this sort of thing. We, the people of the North, had no knowledge of any of this happening."

Then, "groups started getting together and talking about what we could do about it. That's when we came up with our final agreement, our land claim agreement," Day said.

The agreement was a giant step away from not having knowledge of development activities, yet it is what generations of Elders had long advocated.

"Our Elders always insisted on how important our land was, that our land had looked after us for centuries and it would keep on looking after us if we looked after it," said Day.

Article by Shirley Collingridge

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