Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to use my Member’s statement to give my condolence to the Doctor family, Horassi family in Tulita. Over the weekend, we lost a community elder and member in Tulita. On Sunday morning I got a phone call from my brother, saying that a gentleman passed away in Tulita. Another one has left us in their community. I was thinking about the amount of elders that we have lost in the Sahtu region. Mr. Speaker, people like my uncle Adrian Menacho, an older gentleman in Deline that passed away last year, and an older man in Colville Lake Joe Martin Oudzi also passed away. Several people in Fort Good Hope have also passed away.
Mr. Speaker, when we come here to represent our people, these people, when they ask us to work for them or speak for them, when we go out we seek their support on Election Day to put an X beside our name so we can go and talk to these people that have faith in us to say what needs to be said. These elderly people gave us advice. They give us direction. They tell us how to work together. They tell us if you don’t work together, you create a lot of hardship. They tell us, too, this is how they view life. This is how they grew up. These are the values and beliefs. Sometimes they don’t quite coincide with the modern day living in terms of how we see life. We go back to our communities. These elders are from the land. This is how they see things. Sometimes these elders give us strong words to speak on their behalf, how they see the world. Sometimes it has a conflict with the way they go out today. Sometimes we are in that state of which way do we decide on. But I also heard from one of the elders. You always side with the people. You will never go wrong in your decisions. I heard people say to remember what the elders have taught you and what have they told you. This is why I want to say to the families in Tulita and in the Sahtu that these elders are very valuable to us. I offer my prayers and condolence to the families in Tulita.
