Charlene Liske is many things: a mother, a volunteer, a coach and an inductee in the NWT Education Hall of Fame.
But above all else, she’s a member of her community.
“My community is very important to me. We’re a small community, about 250 people outside of Yellowknife,” said Liske, a member of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation in Dettah.
When Liske, the director of traditional knowledge and cultural resources at the Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning, first learned she was an inductee in the 2023 Education Hall of Fame, she said she didn’t quite realize the gravity of the impact she’s made — not until the award was in her hands.
“Until I brought the award home, and sat there looking at it, putting it on my wall, I was like, ‘Oh my god, I was recognized.’”
The distinction has made her all the more grateful for the work she does.
“I have another award that it’s next to,” Liske said, referring to when she was awarded Youth of the Year by the Akaitcho Territory Government, about 13 years ago, which also hangs on her wall.
“One youth is selected every year in the community for their hard work and efforts and volunteering in the community. And I got it, so it’s right next to that award,” said Liske.
Liske has been working with her community for more than a decade, in particular in the areas of recreation and wellness.
“That really connected me to a lot of Elders and the youth,” she said.
But what sticks out to her most is her first hide camp with Dechinta.
“I worked for our First Nation, and we were very limited with funds and to gather people. And then as soon as I started with Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning, they said, ‘What is one thing that you really want to get going? Let’s make it happen.’ And I was like, ‘Hide tanning.’”
What made the experience stand out, Liske said, was that she invited the wellness division of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation to participate in hide tanning for the two and a half weeks.
“They came in as community members,” she said. “That whole wellness team, I think there were eight of them. Eight people and by the end of the camp, they really emphasized how healing it is to process caribou hides.”
Dechinta is an Indigenous initiative, working with the University of British Columbia (UBC).
“If you take any of our accredited courses, you get credits through UBC for Indigenous Studies,” said Liske.
So, not only is she attached to her own community, but also helping others reattach to theirs.
“A lot of these people that come to our camps, and people from our community, haven’t worked on hides for many, many years, either because of residential schools or nobody in our family knows how to tan hide and we’re relearning this,” said Liske, adding that the process can pull at a person’s heart strings.
“Relearning a skill, or learning the skill that hasn’t been taught to them by their family members or their parents or their ancestors for any reason, that’s the emotional part of it. A lot of people get very emotional,” she said.
When camp’s over, students have not only earned some credits through the university, but also some new hide. In 2023, 11 students took home some moose hide.
“Every camp they do, they walk away with some kind of piece of hide or clothing that they made at camp,” she said. “They also take away all the traditional knowledge that was taught to them, traditional foods that they harvest throughout the three weeks. They always leave happy and crying, and everybody’s so grateful by the end of the camp.”
As for Liske, what she wants to see next is more culture and traditions taught in her community and schools. She also mentioned an Elders’ program in Dettah that’s been running well. She’d like to see it continue.
“I think uniting our community, with our Elders and with our youth. It will bring back the culture and traditions in our community. That’s what I really strive for.”
—For more stories from Degrees of Success 2024, click this link and scroll down to Special Features: https://www.nnsl.com/e-editions-nno