Mary Gouchie: Hubodulh’eh

The Exploration Place and the late Lheidli T’enneh elder Mary Gouchie were just honored at the Prince George Public Library’s 35th annual Jeanne Clarke Awards with the Local History Award for Service for the in-house exhibit Mary Gouchie: Hubodulh’eh.

The exhibit ran from September 2019 through January 2020 and focused on the prominent elder’s commitment to the recovery and revitalization of the Lheidli T’enneh dialect of Dakelh by assisting to document the written and spoken language.

When introducing the award, Katherine Carlson, Executive Director of the Central BC Railway and Forestry Museum, praised The Exploration Place for leading the way in collaborative work and community engagement for the past 25 years. The Exploration Place continues to work on language preservation initiatives including work with the Lheidli T’enneh on the digitization of a large collection of oral histories spoken in Dakelh.

Members of Gouchie’s family were among the 90 people in attendance at the ceremony held at the Railway and Forestry Museum and accepted the award on her behalf.