Q. Who was on the news team?

The first Community hearing was held in Aklavik. The CBC sent its team of Indigenous language reporters up to the Delta to cover the hearings: Joe Tobie, Louie Blondin, Abe Okpik, Jim Sittichinli and one non-Indigenous reporter, Whit Fraser.

We drove from Inuvik to Aklavik with our gear. It was a testing ground. How would the community hearings go?

Q. How did you find your stories?

The Judge started each hearing by saying: 'I'm here to listen.' People started telling stories of living on the land. The Judge sat and listened and listened. He stayed until everyone who wanted to speak had had a chance.

Every day, the reporters did a news report in their own language. They were skilled. They translated the testimony into language understood by people living in bush camps across the north. They were completely at home with the challenge.

Q. Why were these reporters special?

Each day I prepared a television report in a different language. It was go, go, go. We'd sit in the Inquiry all day and then churn out reports all evening. A dynamic time.

Aklavik was home turf for Abe Okpik. At the hearing he told of falling through the ice in the Delta, into an ice cave. The lake was frozen right to the bottom. The experts from the oil industry were amazed - they weren't aware of that.

Q. What special moments do you recall?

In Old Crow, Jim Sittichinli was translating for an expert who was giving evidence about caribou fences that had been carbon dated - they had been used by the Gwich'in 30,000 years ago.

Jimmy stopped translating and said: 'Oh, yeah, I remember hunting with caribou fences when I was young.' It was delightful to see the look of amazement on the face of the so-called 'expert'.

Q. Did the reporters testify at the Inquiry?

Yes, all of the members of the Indigenous language team gave testimony in their own communities. Jim Sittichinli spoke on the first day of hearings in Aklavik. His evidence explained where the people travelled on their annual hunt for beluga whales.

Q. Did you give evidence at the Inquiry?

As I heard the stories, I was overwhelmed by the passion of what the land meant to people. So when the Inquiry went to Toronto, I decided to make a speech.

Industry and government were saying: 'We need the natural gas right now.' But in Toronto we were staying in a hotel that had heated floors. Why were we wasting energy in such a frivolous way? Forty-five years later, I'm still preaching the same message."