When David Codzi went to school, he says he learned all about Alexander Mackenzie but never about the Dene who helped him.
He says students were told, “he was a great person… mapped the Mackenzie and did all this but at the same time there were people there feeding him, telling him where to go, making sure he was alright and that’s our people.” However, those people aren’t recognized in the history books.
Codzi is the president of the Ayoni Keh Land Corporation in Colville Lake.
For the past four years, the corporation has led a project to collect the stories of Dene heroes in the Sahtú.
A space for positivity and recognition
It’s a space to recognize the positive contributions of the Dene to modern times, says Codzi.
“There’s too much negativity out there, that’s what people see and that’s what they think is happening all the time, so it drags them down,” he says. “If we take the practice of seeing the positivity, little by little we’re changing the mood.”
David Codzi is the president of the Ayoni Keh Land Corporation in Colville Lake. The corporation has been leading the Dene Heroes book publication for the past four years. (Francis Tessier-Burns/File photo).
The project started with students going to elders and other heroes to collect their stories. Codzi says it taught them to look in their own backyard for inspiration rather than go online.
Now, four years later, he says more adults are contributing to the book. It gives them a space to talk about their time in residential school and overcoming other difficult life experiences.
The books are also a way for the Dene to take hold of their history, says Codzi. It’s an opportunity for them to tell their own story.
“Our contributions have been hidden or given to somebody else to produce and we’ve never been acknowledged,” he says. “There’s a whole lot of things that our people have done, not just Dene but all the aboriginal people across this continent.”
It’s also an opportunity for the Dene to share with one another.
Hearing the stories from other Sahtú communities, Codzi says it’s helped him better understand “how they come to see the world, their perspective.”
Young people to take over
Two years ago, the project won $100,000 from the Arctic Inspiration Prize.
Since then, Codzi and other leaders have been working to ensure the project’s long-term future.
Mary-Ann Neal is a professor in British Columbia who has been working with the Sahtú communities as the project director. With the prize money she has trained youth in Colville Lake and Délı̨nę to be able to take over the publishing of the Dene Heroes books.
Codzi says the project has stretched his resources in the small community of Colville Lake and he’s looking for young people to take over the project to ensure its long-term viability.
