Into the North

              THE WOMEN'S

INSTITUTE

The late Governor General, Georges P. Vanier, said, "Canada's vast unoccupied continent to the North constitutes the fiercest challenge and the brightest promise that has ever fallen to one nation's lot in recorded history". The Federated Women's Institutes of Canada accepted the challenge. At the 1959 Biennial Board Meeting in Charlottetown, the story of the Women's Institute, at Haines Junction in the Yukon, was told and a resolution passed that the attention of the Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources be drawn to this work of the W.I. in the North. As a follow-up to the resolution, Mrs. E. J. Roy]ance, President of FWIC, 1959-6], met with the Hon. Walter Dinsdale, Minister, and obtained the co-operation of his Department to take the program into the North. It was fitting that Mrs. William Hough, Stratford, Ontario, was asked to carry the story of the Women's Institute program for home and community betterment to the homemakers of this nort:1ern area. In 1956, Mrs. Hough, who was then living at Haines Junction in the Yukon, was responsible for the organizing of the first W.I. north of the 60th parallel. Mrs. Hough reported the benefits of this organization as a common meeting ground for all the women in this isolated community. By working together they organized a community centre, which housed the library and provided a social and recreational meeting place. Natives and whites benefited from health lectures by the local nurse, and garden talks by the agronomist from the Government Experimenta] Station. A new and enlarged school was secured ~nd later a fall fair was organized. The success of the Haines Junction W.I. lighted the torch for the extension of Women's Institutes into other areas of Northern Canada. That Mrs. Hough succeeded is evidenced by the organization of four branches in the Northwest Territories in 1960; Fort Providence, Discovery, Fort McPherson and Inuvik. If the program of the W.I. were to continue in the North, it was deemed a necessity that a field worker visit each Branch every year to assist the officers with their problems until such time as the work was firmly established. To do this it was necessary to set up a fund to cover the expenses of travelling the far-flung territories, and to provide special assistance to the Branches. In 1961 a Committee was formed for the FWIC term, 1961-64, to have charge of this project. This was comprised of Mrs. G. E. LeBaron, Chairman; Mrs. E. 1. Roylance, Mrs. R. 1. Penney, The FWIC President, Mrs. James Haggerty, attended all meetings and the National Secretary, Mrs. H. G. Tay]or, served in an advisory capacity. In 1962 Mrs. Hough winged her way North again and the W.I. radiated out to Fort Smith, Fort Simpson, Fort Good Hope, Aklavik, and another W.I. at Inuvik, taking the name of Delta. In 1963 Miss Florence P. Eadie, former head of Junior Extension work of the Department of Agriculture in Ontario, took over when Mrs. Hough was unable to make the trip. Mrs. James Haggerty, accompanied Miss Eadie to the "Land of the Midnight Sun", to visit the established Branches and encourage others to join the circle. At Tuktoyaktuk, the first all-Eskimo Branch was organized and Fort Norman completed plans to form a Branch. Over in the Yukon, in came a W.I. at Destruction Bay, a community on the A]aska Highway. The Northern W.I. was also honoured by a visit from Mrs. Gerda van Beekhoff, President of the Associated Country Women of the World, in 1963 when she toured Canada. Her parting words were: "Your opportunities in glorious and free Canada are immeasurable. May you continue to live up to the challenge of these times. . . with doors and windows open to the world".

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