Judy Gingell
Proud her people are in the driver's seat
By George Young
Windspeaker Writer
Judy Gingell, the eldest of nine children, was born in 1946
on her grandfather's trapline about 200 miles south of Whitehorse.
Though once a bookkeeper with a Grade 9 education, she has gone
on to become one of the most influential political figures ever
to come out of the Yukon, and she is this year's National Aboriginal
Achievement Award winner in the community development category.
Her life began in
a little camp off the main trapline, she told Windspeaker.
"They were using dog teams to check the traps, and they
had to take me back to the main cabin after I was born and that
was my first ride in a dog sled," she said. "Dad said
it was really, really cold. You could hear the trees cracking.
It must have been really cold."
Gingell said she had a very traditional upbringing. Her family
lived on the land, moving with the seasons on Carcross and Kwanlin
Dun traditional territory.
When Gingell reached school age, the family settled and she entered
the Whitehorse Baptist residential school. One of her greatest
regrets is that she made a decision to leave school as soon as
she was of legal age.
"Instead of saying, 'OK Judy, you need to stay in school,
graduate, and have a dream of what you want to do,' that vision
was not there. I was just anxious to get away from the residential
school," she said.
Education, Gingell insists, is...
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