Photo by Palma Berger

IT IS COLOUR SHE LOVES

by Palma Berger

One wanders up the adequately lit stair well at Tombstone Gallery. Then follows the delight of discovering so much colour against those brown walls of the rooms upstairs.

The colour and patterning are from the quilt work of Sylvia Strutton. She now has a showing of her quilt work at Tombstone Gallery (in the Tintina Bakery).

It is obvious that it is colour she loves. This is brought out by the patterns of the pieces. Pieces that are comprised of many shapes put together with effective use of colour adding to the depth, or contrast or design. Her designs are influenced by her Ukrainian background.

‘My Colour Wheel’ has been given a three dimensional effect with the effective use of colours darkening as your gaze goes round each wheel. ‘Baba’s Garden’ (grandmother’s) evokes the brightness of a sunny day highlighting the flowers in the garden. Flowers that are neatly arranged in rows each with its own colour. Three pieces that are made up of neat triangles depict a ‘Klondike Midnight’, a ‘Klondike Sunrise’ and a ‘Klondike Sunset;. All have the same design with only the colours portraying the time of day. She has been called up to use her talent in assembling quilt squares done by individuals as a gift for a friend. This is also on show.

It is obvious that she doesn’t mope about in our dark winter months, as all the work is hand sewn.

Strutton has been living in the Dawson area since 1980, but grew up in South west Ontario.

She has been quilting since the age of thirteen when the Women’s Institute in her church had a quilting group there. Sewing has been in her family’s genes on could say. She learned cross stitch from her grandmother. Her mother was a sewing teacher, as well as an Aunt.

She didn’t go straight into a fabric related career. She trained as a cartographer which she admits trained her eye to be very precise, and thus helped with her planning her quilts. Then she worked as a surveyor for a time.

As for her quilting, she says it is colour that inspires her the most. Flowers have been a predominant theme in her quilts.

Her work has been shown in the Odd Gallery at various times, at a showing of mixed art in the Tombstone Gallery and in Whitehorse at a juried Visual Art Exhibition in the

Searching for Her Roots

by Dan Davidson

Sharon Jinkerson-Brass is of Anishanabea ancestry. A filmmaker, writer and producer, Sharon is the other half of Big Sky, with mask maker and storyteller Victor Reece. Sharon spent an afternoon recently at the Dänòja Zho Cultural Center, telling something of her life, relating a few stories that she learned from her grandmother, and screening one of her theatre school film projects.

Brass tells about her life outside the Dänòja Zho Cultural Centre in Dawson City. Photo by Dan Davidson

Sharon comes from that generation of first nations children from whom thousands were taken from their mothers during what is sometimes referred to as the “scoop” of the 1950s and 1960s. They were placed in non-native foster homes. Sharon was adopted by a family who took care to acquaint her with some aspects of her culture and raise her with a positive attitude towards indigenous people.

Due to her light skin colour, Sharon says that she did not view herself as native until later in life. Having grown up and found a career in nursing she nevertheless found herself lacking something in her life.

In her mid-twenties, Sharon took the advise of a psychiatrist and began to search for her origins. Working through the Bureau of Indian Affairs she managed to locate her birth family on the Key Reserve. The discovery of her mother and her grandmother took her to a new understanding of her life and a new focus.

Her experiences led her, at first, to become an advocate for those who were in her situation. She has contributed to a number of organizations and government reports on this issue. More recently she has pursued a career as a filmmaker to document some of these problems and also suggest solutions, as well as record first nations’ culture.

Among the stories she told that afternoon were the tale of how dogs came to live with people and how the people got the habit of telling stories.

Training the Placer Miners of Tomorrow

By Elaine Schiman

When Martin Knutson looks around his placer mine on Last Chance Creek near Dawson City, he sees lots of potential for the future.

Knutson’s two sons work on his mine, as well as several other young men of about the same age. Every summer, they are able to earn money and gain skills that they might eventually use on a placer mine of their own.

This summer, eight youth from the Dawson area had the opportunity for a similar experience through a training program sponsored by the Klondike Placer Miners’ Association (KPMA) and the Tr’ondek Hwech’in First Nation.

Knutson, who is a Director with the KPMA, was one of the organizers of the pilot project.

“The community of Dawson City does a lot to support placer miners, and we wanted to give something back through this program,” says Knutson. “We wanted to create an opportunity for Dawson youth to experience mining at an entry level.”

Entry level jobs in placer mining are harder to come by now than in the past. With advances in technology, some jobs that used to give youth a ‘foot in the door’ no longer exist. “In the past, young people would start with something like box tending,” says Knutson. “A box tender uses a huge rake to pull larger rocks through the sluicebox so they don’t get stuck. Now that most placer miners use more complex sluice plants, that job has virtually disappeared.”

As a result, when placer mine owners are looking for employees, they want someone with experience.

This summer’s training program offered Dawson youth ages 16 to 25 a chance to spend a week working on a placer mine, gaining experience in a variety of onsite jobs. They also attended three classroom sessions, which covered staking and placer mining rules and regulations, job readiness and resume writing, and workplace safety.

“The KPMA received valuable help from other professionals in the community who delivered classroom instruction,” says Knutson. “Our partnership with the Tr’ondek Hwech’in First Nation was also very important. Their staff visited the school, talked to young people about the program and took applications.”

The First Nation paid half the wages which trainees received. The other half was paid by the placer mining companies for whom trainees worked.

Depending on circumstances at each mine, the trainees’ experience included maintenance, mechanical work, carpentry, machinery operation and sluicebox cleanup.

Eight trainees were placed at eight different placer mines. Seven of them were First Nations youth.

“That level of participation indicates a keen interest and support for placer mining from the Tr’ondek Hwech’in First Nation,” says Knutson. “It was an excellent partnership opportunity for us.”

Knutson’s own placer mining crew is 50 per cent First Nation ­ his two sons and three others.

17-year-old Kyle Isaac is one of those three. He has worked on Knutson’s placer mine for two summers and enrolled in the training program this year to gain additional experience. “It was good to see how another mining operation is set up,” says Isaac. “I also spent part of my training week learning to run the backhoe, which is a new skill for me and will be very useful.” Isaac, who is a member of the Tr’ondek Hwech’in, hopes to continue working in placer mining and eventually have his own mine.

The Executive Director of the Klondike Placer Miners’ Association, Tara Christie, is pleased to see the level of interest in the training program, especially from First Nation youth. “Placer miners are very interested in recruiting more young workers who are local and are likely to want to stay on for the long term. And with land claims now settled for many Yukon First Nations, there are new opportunities developing for First Nations people on their own lands.”

The training program took place in early June, so that trainees had time to look for summer work afterwards. Several of them did receive continuing work on placer mines. “The program helped to build connections between placer miners and youth,” says Knutson. “That might lead to work opportunities down the road as well.”