Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I am going to be reading the eulogy of Colin Allen Senior.
Colin Allen Senior was born in Aklavik on December 25th, 1935. He is the youngest child of eight to Colin and Ida Kasoun. Colin's father passed away before he was born so his Mom took her children and moved back to her parents Minnie Nakamuk and Harry Enakoluk. It was here that he learned his love of living off the land. Around 1942, Colin went to school in Aklavik and while in school, he learned how to read and fondly remembers reading Dick and Jane. He felt that being able to read this book was enough education for him so he left and returned to his grandfather to help work on the land without him allowing himself to get proper education. It was very important to him for his children and his grandchildren to have a good education.
When he was 14 years old, he and Shorty Stanley Gordon worked for the RCMP schooner called St. Roche and hauled fresh water ice for drinking by dog team. This is where he learned to play crib and later became one of his favorite activities to pass time.
In the spring of 2016 Colin went to Vancouver, BC, and was able to visit St. Roche. He was able to tour the boat and share many stories with the staff and told them exactly what the boat did way back in the day. Colin was very proud of this event. It has provided opportunity for him to share stories, which he was very good at doing.
On June 17th, 1954, Colin moved to East Three from the family trapline at Classic Camp by Shallow Bay. He worked for Dusty Miller for two years alongside of Richard Kendi then went to school in a five twelve in Inuvik for carpentry.
This course was supposed to be four years but he completed it in two. Because Colin got his ticket, he was given the duty as supervisor and supervised a crew to frame the carpenter shop. Once that was finished, him and Andrew Joe put the roofing on it and finished.
With the work ethic he had, he was always asked to do different tasks around town while Inuvik was starting to be built. He worked jackhammer all day testing the ground to begin building East Three, build eight houses at Happy Valley before it became a campground, built the warehouses across from Home Hardware, built the yellow railings around town, foreman to build the Mad Trapper. This is just to name a few. If you took Colin out for a drive around town, he would tell you stories about everything every time, and he was very proud to share how Inuvik became.
In April of 1955, Colin was one of many supervisors cutting brush to help make the road from town to the Inuvik airport. In the winter, he helped cut the trail from Inuvik to Aklavik and moved three tent camps as they went to make the winter road. It was never used as the government made an ice road instead.
In 1958, Colin worked for Poole Construction building Sam School, Grolier Hall, Stringer Hall Chapel and benches as an apprentice under Jim MacDonald. It was at this job site where he met the love of his life, Rita Rogers.
Rita and Colin were married on April 19, 1960. Together they had eight children Clara, Timothy, Dorothy, Darlene, Donna, Don, Dixie, and Colin Junior. Having a full house of children, it was busy but lots of love. Their priority was to ensure that their children were taken care of by working hard and to provide teaching them to live on the land as much as they can and by making sure all the kids went to school every day. Education was very important during these years.
Rita and Colin took in many others who were attending school at Grolier Hall and Stringer Hall. After their children moved out and had families of their own, Rita and Colin took in teenagers through social services and tried to get them to finish school and learn to live on the land as well.
Some of Colin's favorite things to do was watch baseball, check the river, play bingo, play cards, jig, waltz, and call out square dances.
Within the last year, Colin was in and out of the hospital. As things were changing quickly with his health and physical wellbeing, he would mention that he was not sure how much longer he was going to stay with his family as he began to feel sickly and no longer could a lot of the things that he enjoyed. During the last few months his body was deteriorating, he never complained once about the pain.
Mr. Speaker, as this was read by two of his grandchildren and they all called him dad, I will use the words as I read their closing.
Thank you, Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Our thoughts and prayers continue with the family and the community at this time. Members' statements. Member for Kam Lake.
