Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to say I was very impressed with the young fellow that Mr. Dolynny talked about. He’s got a good future ahead of him.
I want to talk about Raymond Taniton. Raymond Taniton co-authored a book called At the Heart of It. It’s the seventh book in the Land of our Storybook series. Tessa MacIntosh was the photographer and Mindy Willet was the co-author with Raymond Taniton.
Raymond is a Sahtugot’ine, which means people from the Great Bear Lake area. He lives in Deline and is one of the many gifted leaders in the community in the Sahtu region.
After Europe colonized Canada, Aboriginal people were made to do things differently, often forced to forget their traditional ways and values and become a different people. Sahtugot’ine also suffered from colonization, but in Raymond’s book he showed how they continued to teach their children their core values: to have respect for their elders, their parents and themselves. In this book he also tells people there are many reasons why Deline is a strong and healthy community, stating that they never gave up the responsibility to govern and look after themselves. In At the Heart of It, Raymond shows readers how to make a traditional drum with the help of his father, Alfred, a leader and keeper of
the drum, and shares many what At the Heart of It in Deline to be connected to a healthy community.
This book is used by many in the schools of the Northwest Territories and they are using them from Grade 4 to Grade 7 mostly. I have heard adults also reading them as they’re good instructions to all the different communities in the Northwest Territories. There is going to be a total 10 books.
I also heard people from India, Australia, France and all over the U.S. are also reading this book. This book is in our schools, and the stories are from different storytellers and the youth from across the different regions. They are very good stories, and I want to say thank you very much for the people who made it possible. Thank you for Raymond Taniton, for his father, for Mindy, Tess and the department who made all this possible. Please go out and read these books. Good job. I want to say thank you to the hardworking people who made this possible. Mahsi cho.