Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to honour a late elder on this day, International Women's Day, the late Elder Elise Gargan. She was quoted in sharing her stories in the Book of Elders, Nahecho Keh, and usually I read it in Slavey, but this time I wanted to read it in English.

These are quotes from Elise Gargan. Elise Gargan was born on March 12, 1926, up river from Fort Providence:

"When I was young, I really loved the elders. I used to wash their clothes and heat water for them so they could wash, just as if they were the parents I never had. I believe that, for every cup of tea I placed before them, I gained one more day on this earth for myself. I enjoyed doing these things for them out of love.

"No one ever taught me to work. I watched others, then I'd try. If I didn't sew something properly, I'd undo it and try again until I could do it. If you keep on trying, eventually, you'll succeed.

"I married when I was 15 and really had a hard time struggling to survive. Nowadays we live in luxury compared to how it used to be.

"Life was especially hard for the woman. When the man is away, the woman had to feed the children. No matter how cold it was, I had to check the snares. Before I left the children, I had to tie a leather thong around the waist of one and tie the end to something stable, put another in their swing cradle, and leave the elders to watch them all. That's how we used to live.

"The low points of my life were hunger and sickness. We didn't know how to help each other when there was sickness and there was no doctor. Sometimes we boiled herbs. Sometimes just thinking of getting better helps you overcome.

"When you're out in the bush, you sometimes experience real physical pain. It was especially difficult giving birth. Sometimes you didn't know what to do, and you're very thankful if your child is alive."

"The land gives less now. Once it was so new and very beautiful. I wonder if our children will ever have the experience of living on the land as we did, but the loss of this way of life has come in their generation. Education will give them a chance at another way of life now that many of them are no longer able to survive in the bush." Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.