N o r t h e r n S a s k a t c h e w a n A r c h i v e s
Providing a safe home for northern history.
| Early in 2001 a group of volunteers formed the Northern Saskatchewan Archives Committee to work towards providing a safe home for visual and print materials relating to northern Saskatchewan. Materials of much archival interest had been collected and developed over the years by government departments and other agencies during their communications and curriculum development activities. Other materials had been donated by northern residents and by people who had spent time in the north. To house these materials, a specially-designed room was included in the new Pahkisimon Nuye?áh Library System (PNLS) building which was opened in Air Ronge in 2002.
The Department of Northern Saskatchewan (DNS) produced a mass of materials between 1972 and 1983 that form the centrepiece of the archives. Extension Services Branch staff, including many northerners who have gone on to notable careers in communications such as Tom Roberts, Sam Hardlotte, Robert Merasty, and Soloman Ratt, photographed and taped government activities, community events, and northern people and scenery, for use in publications, slide presentations, and radio and TV programs. The collection includes 10,000 slides, 23,000 black-and-white photographs, 135 audio-tapes, and 600 video-tapes. During the same years, Lois Dalby and other staff of the Academic Education Branch were recording traditional and northern activities on another 10,000 slides, and northern history on tapes, to produce curriculum materials for the northern schools. The branch also contracted Larry Hewitt to record Dene traditional life on film and cassette tapes, and these have recently been used by Lynda Holland to produce two books of recollections by Dene elders. Another large collection comes from Saskatchewan Education. During the 1980’s and 90’s, Graham Guest, Sam Hardlotte, and other staff also recorded northern activities, people, communities, and cultural events on slides and videotape, for use in instructional materials and publications. As well, John Finch gave the department his collection of photos and recollections after a lifetime as an aircraft engineer, and the staff used these materials to produce a history of northern aviation. The archives also has materials from many other agencies and northern residents, a collection of 570 environmental reports undertaken during mining, community, and forestry developments, and copies of more than 100 northern and Aboriginal newspapers and periodicals. Sorting of the materials was begun by PNLS staff and summer students, and since May, 2003, Graham Guest has continued the work of organizing, cataloguing, and preserving the materials in ways that conform with archival guidelines, through funding provided by Saskatchewan Learning, PNLS, and the volunteer archives committee. The materials will be made available to researchers and educators for research purposes and in the preparation of publications and curriculum materials. For further information, please contact:
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