Many things bloom in spring. For one Yellowknives Dene First Nation member, this time of the year serves as a reminder to collectively return to cultivating a healthy relationship with the land.
Janet Auger, a born and raised YKDFN member, discussed with Cabin Radio how she had taken the initiative to organize this year’s community spring clean-up for Dettah and Ndılǫ.
This idea had weighed on her mind after noticing the absence of this traditional event since recently moving back to the community.
“Normally, when I was living here 18 years ago, they would have a spring clean-up every year. And I was just inquiring to the [community] members, ‘When is the spring clean-up?’ And a few people told me that it’s been a few years since that’s happened,” Auger said.
She continued this conversation with friends and family on Facebook, where she was able to gather enough interest to proceed with organizing an event.
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“It seemed like a lot of people were interested in helping clean up both communities, Dettah and Ndılǫ, so I just took it upon myself to organize it,” Auger said.
The spring clean-up relies on volunteers to dispose of trash and litter carelessly discarded around town. It’s a practice that embodies the Dene worldview of treating the land as an area of responsibility in life.
Auger hopes she has taken a step toward revitalizing this type of relationship between YKDFN and Denendeh (the land of the people) by initiating the spring clean-up.
She also sees it as a good way to “connect with each other in the community, because everybody’s so disconnected because of their busy life, working, doing whatever they need to do on a daily basis, that people don’t really get a chance to connect with one another.”
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She says the clean-up’s benefits include setting the right example for the younger generations.
Keeping up with this tradition is something that Auger has carried on from her own upbringing as a youth. She said this event was one of her favourite things while growing up, because of how it gathered the community together.
“I remember going out with my grandpa and my uncles and everybody in the community, and having a garbage bag and picking up everything that you see,” she said.
“I remember seeing so much garbage bags on the side of the roads, waiting to be picked up.”
Auger said locals also used to organize a graveyard clean-up. Now, she would like to revive that tradition, too.
She said the graveyard clean-up was previously scheduled around the same time as the spring clean-up and celebrated with a picnic afterward.
“It’s just those memories that are kind-of inspiring me to move forward,” she said, “and try to organize something like this for our community.”
