Tlicho community gathers at Whitebeach Point for cultural celebration

A Tlicho community gathering at Whitebeach Point is celebrating Tlichoculture byhelping the community connect to the land.

Other communities have on-the-land camps where people gatherto share traditional meals, stories, and teachings, said Tammy Steinwand-Deschambeault, director of the Tlichogovernment's department of culture and lands protection.

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"At Lutsel K'e, they go to the Lady ofthe Falls. The Whati people, they go around the lake and have an annual event," she said. "For us in Behchoko, we don't really have a place."

Whitebeach Point isremote, roughly 50 kilometreswest of Yellowknife on the North Arm of Great Slave Lake.

Steinwand-Deschambeault said many people cannot access the site, so theTlicho government decided to "give that opportunity for people to get out there including the elders."

A celebration of the land

This is the second annual gathering at Whitebeach Point. The Tlicho government began this project last year as a way to celebrate the importance of the land and Tlicho culture, according to Grand Chief George Mackenzie.

The gathering kicked off with a feeding the fire ceremony on Aug.1.

"The ceremony is to bless the grounds, bless the water, and remember all the past elders that used the land in Whitebeach Point," said Mackenzie.

Over the next two weeks, members of the Tlicho community will take planes and motorboats from Frank Channel near Behchoko to Whitebeach Point.

Once at the site, people can go duck hunting, check fish nets, hunt moose, or pick berries. At the camp, people can play volleyball, horseshoes, and visit with one another.

It's "a time to reflect and share stories, and just be with each other," said Steinwand-Deschambeault.

Whitebeach Point was always used by the Tlicho people for camping, fishing, and hunting. Some of the elders out on the land this year were raised in the area, according toSteinwand-Deschambeault.

Sought-after land

WhitebeachPoint has been a placeof contention between the Tlicho government and mining companies in the past. In 2015, Husky Oil withdrew its plans to drill the sands of Whitebeach Point to explore its potential for use in fracking.

In 2017, the project was back on after Explorsigned an agreement with Husky Oil to explore 29 claims.Explorstated ithad no interest in affecting the Whitebeach area in any way, though tensions remained between the company and the Tlicho government as they pursued other projects around the N.W.T.

Allan Chatenay, the president of Explor, said Whitebeach Point isa special place.

"As a Canadian, and as a human being, we need to leave that the way it is," he said.

"I think continuing to use that location, the land, to be out there it's fantastic."

Steinwand-Deschambeault emphasized the gathering isseparate from past tensions with mining companies over the same area.

"That's not what this is about," she said.