“People of all cultures from way, way back got their medicines from the plants of the earth, trees, the willows, the flowers, the roots.

“I was born in the bush. I return there to replenish and come back to do what I have to do again.

“My mother was born and raised in the northern part of the Northwest Territories. My father was from Liverpool, England and became a Northwest Mounted Policeman in Canada. He was forbidden to marry a Native person and had to buy his way out of the NWMP to do so. I think I have the best of both worlds. To me there’s no difference.

“My mother and my aunt were teachers. They in turn were taught by their mothers, who in turn were taught by their mothers and so on. They knew what the different plants were used for then and are still used today for those same things.

“The knowledge of our language and how to live off the land was lost by a lot of us after we had gone through the residential school era. Many people are now trying to learn their language again. I never lost it because I went to the residential school when I was starting to learn the Gwich’in vocabulary. I did get the strap there for speaking my language.

“Young people who are still not pensioners but teachers…I work with them, teaching our Native language so that they can speak the language to their students who are learning it also.”