Collection tro-3 - Tr'ondek Hwech'in Heritage Department Collection

The Social Programs Department within the Tr'ondek Hwech'in government had a large range of responsibilities including all education, heritage and cultural related activities. As the Tr'ondek Hwech'in government grew in response to the signing of the self government agreement on July 16th, 1998, a need for more specific departments was defined. At this point the heritage component was a small piece of a large department with the pressing social and educational responsibilities one would expect of a new and emerging government. In 1998 the Culture and Education Department and the Health and Social Department were formed from what had previously been the single Social Programs Department. This new Culture and Education Department contained two positions; a director and a community education liaison coordinator (CELC). The CELC worked with the local school and began taking on other related cultural activities. The resources of the department were not meeting the demands of the new government responsibilities so in the next 2 years the department grew dramatically and went through various phases, missions, and incarnations. Like all Tr'ondek Hwech'in departments, the Culture and Education Department is governed by the Chief and Council and the Elders Council. In July of 1998, the Danoja Zho Cultural Centre, part of the Culture and Education Department, opened its doors. It began with a proposal presented at the General Assembly in 1994 to construct an interpretive centre to "Preserve, promote cultural awareness and exchange social differences, while developing a proud legacy for future generations". With the Klondike Centennial Society as a partner, Tr'ondek Hwech'in developed the Cultural Centre building as an anchor to a larger waterfront beautification project. Funding from the Territorial Government and Tr'ondek Hwech'in was put towards this. The Danoja Zho Cultural Center was designed by Kobayashi and Zedda Architects Ltd. of Whitehorse and received the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia Merit Award in Architecture for its design. In 1999, a Heritage Officer position was added to the department. As no formal training for this position existed and few precedents were set for this type of work within a first nation government, the first task of the Heritage Officer was to seek training. Time was spent working with David Neufeld, the Yukon and Western Arctic Historian with Parks Canada in Whitehorse before the Heritage Officer began work in house. The areas of responsibility for the Heritage Officer at the time were large and included everything to do with heritage. The Trochek management plan, the operation of the Danoja Zho Cultural Centre, oversight of oral history projects, collections, and directing the department in heritage matters were some of the areas of responsibility. At this time two term positions were added to assist the Heritage Officer; a Heritage Researcher to tend to internal and external requests and to look after the archival and library collections and a coordinator for the Danoja Zho Cultural Centre to oversee the daily operations during the summer. A business plan for the development of Danoja Zho Cultural Centre began in November of 1999 and was completed June 23, 2000. October of 2000, a Special Events Coordinator was hired to the Culture and Education Department to attend to the broader cultural related events such as First Hunt, First Fish, Moosehide Gathering, staff events, etc. Before 2000, the Community Education Liaison Coordinator position moved from Culture and Education to Human Resources and was renamed the education coordinator. By 2001, the department had expanded to include a Language Coordinator, a permanent Cultural Centre Coordinator, and a Cultural Centre Programmer on secondment from Parks Canada. By 2002 a permanent Heritage Researcher was hired as was a Collections Manager to deal with the growing artifact and archival collections. The Culture and Education Department was renamed the Heritage and Education Department and a strategic plan was created including the vision statement and defined goals for the department. The vision statement outlines an intent to "achieve an interdependent and united self-governing First Nation by re-establishing our traditional culture, and reclaiming our identity and rightful place as Tr'ondek Hwech'in First Nations people. By committing to work together to provide training, education, and employment, we will build a strong, healthy and stable future." The mission statement identifies the departments responsibility to serve the citizens of Tr'ondek Hwech'in. On April 1, 2004 the department was renamed the Heritage Department as the education responsibilities were transferred to the Human Resources department. The Cultural Center Programmer position became permanent as did a Research Assistant position to assist the Language Coordinator and the Heritage Researcher. April 2, 2004, the National Council on Public History recognized the Heritage Department with the 2004 Robert Kelly Memorial Award for the integrated program of public involvement in heritage activities, research into the community's history, active support for artistic cultural expression, and language preservation spanning over 35 years of community involvement. An aggressive approach to gathering and identifying heritage resources and present traditional and contemporary culture has been undertaken in an attempt to catch up to the volume of unrecorded material of value before that information is no longer available. A sense of urgency to capture information before it is lost and to organize ourselves before the onslaught of outside research requests and economic development threaten traditional knowledge and intellectual property rights motivates the department. The Heritage Department continues to evolve rapidly to keep up with its responsibilities.