Hours: Monday – Friday, 9:00am-12:00pm, 1:00pm-4:30pm
Location: Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, 4750 48th Street, Yellowknife, NT, P.O. Box 1320, X1A 2L9
Contact: nwtarchives@gov.nt.ca; 1-867-767-9347 x71211
Access: Open to the public
Website Address: http://www.nwtarchives.ca/
The Northwest Territories Archives contains over 1,000 linear metres of textual records, 350,000 photographs, thousands of hours of audio and video recordings, and a library of more than 9,000 volumes. The Archives’ holdings document the history of the Northwest Territories (NWT) including the oral tradition and history of its Aboriginal peoples, the governing of the NWT, the fur trade, the aviation industry, and the mining industry.
Government records date from as far back as 1888. From 1905 to 1967, the administration of the Northwest Territories was the responsibility of the Federal government. The Northern Administration Branch fonds contains 44 linear metres of textual records documenting this period. These fonds contain records related to Aboriginal people, health and welfare, hospitals, social services, pensions, education, alcohol, disabled persons, public utilities, vital statistics, and industrial development. In 1967, the administration of the NWT was transferred to the newly-established capital city of Yellowknife. The records of the Department of Health and Social Services and its predecessor departments document the provision of healthcare and social services in the territory since the creation of the Northwest Territories government in 1967. Topics include: public health, addiction and mental health, child protection and family services, hospitals, nutrition, health education, midwifery, nursing, and traditional knowledge. The Yellowknife Health and Social Services Agency is a subordinate agency of the Department of Health and Social Services. It was created in 1997 and is responsible for the delivery of services to Dettah, Fort Resolution, Lutsel K’e, Ndilo, and Yellowknife. Its operations are overseen by a Board of Directors appointed by the Minister of Health and Social Services. The Yellowknife Health and Social Services Agency fonds consists of 80cm of records from Senior Management meetings, Public Board meetings, and Special Board meetings. The Dehcho Health and Social Services Authority was created in 1997 to deliver health and social services to communities in the Dehcho Region. The Dehcho Health and Social Services Authority fonds consists of 60cm of records including board meetings, board training records, correspondence, newsletters, and bylaws. The records of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and its predecessor departments contain material related to education, child daycare, and the preservation of Aboriginal language, culture, and heritage.
The Archives also maintains municipal records, the most important being the records for Yellowknife, the territorial capital and largest municipality. The municipal records contain files relating to road construction, hospital construction, health and welfare, water and sewage, town planning, zoning by-laws, and infrastructure development.
Records obtained from private donors include the photograph collections of Dr. Leslie Livingston (1888-1964), Dr. Sylvester Drabitt (1926- ), Dr. Norris Hunt, nurse Emily Stillwell, and Sacred Heart Parish (Fort Simpson) which document healthcare and medicine in the NWT. The N.W.T. Council for Disabled Persons fonds consists of 84cm of textual records, 1,600 photographs, 55 audiocassettes, 1 poster, and 1 videocassette. Collections relating to the mining industry such as the Canadian Auto Workers, Local 2304 fonds and the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines fonds contain documents related to occupational health and safety.
The Archives also contains a wealth of material on the Aboriginal people of the NWT. The fonds for priest Rene Fumoleau consist of 15,538 photographs, 37cm of textual records, 2 DAT audio cassettes, 25 audio reels (including oral history interviews), 6 films, 3 BetaCam videocassettes, 43 posters, 12 drawings, and 2 maps relating to Fumoleau’s research on the NWT’s Aboriginal people and Treaties 8 and 11. The Committee for Original Peoples’ Entitlement Oral History Project fonds consists of recordings of 1,013 oral history interviews and 1.2m of transcripts documenting the legends and life experiences of the Inuvialuit, Gwich’in, and North Slavey people. The Northern Heritage Society fonds consists of 6m of textual records, 16 DAT audio cassettes, 13 sound cassettes, and 5 audio cassettes documenting the activities of this society which aimed to promote heritage training in the Northwest Territories. The Elizabeth Cass fonds consists of transcripts of her personal observations of the Gwich’in on topics such as puberty, religious beliefs, burial customs, personal hygiene, marriage, music, and dancing. The George Blondin fonds consists of 1 folder of textual material written by Blondin on indigenous traditional medicine and medicine power.
A large portion of the Archives’ photograph collection has been digitized and is available online. Photographs can be searched by keyword or by subject. The Archives has also created a database of Selected Photo Collections which provides quick access to fonds contributed by notable personalities containing significant photographic content.