“In the old days, people don’t have – they go out on the land with the dog teams and stuff like that. They don’t have skidoos and stuff like that, you know? I think some people take too much, too much caribou. Some of them are, you know, they go on the highway, way towards past Yellowknife, the barren land, and they use vehicles. I don’t know why people they caribou hunt – I think people should just hunt their self instead of going out and kill a whole bunch of caribou. But if you kill a caribou it’s gotta be for good use. Like, some people they just go out from Yellowknife – I don’t know who is – I know us people in Whatì, we hunt and we look after our meat really good. We make sure it’s all in a good place, make sure it doesn’t get rotten. Make sure people are all fed. That’s how it is, we look after our traditions. And some people from Yellowknife, they just go out and, you know, I don’t know what, maybe they’re playing games or…they just take some piece of meat and they just leave it, you know? I think that’s why people start talking about it because once you shoot caribou you should just take the whole thing, and use the whole thing of it. Instead of just cutting a little piece of meat out, you know, a quarter handlebars. Just take that out and leave the rest. The head and everything. You know I hear a lot of things about it.”

Do you think it will change in the future? Or do you hope that it will change?

“I hope it will change because I think they should stop people using vehicles to go hunting. You know, why you take too much meat and just leave it out there, you know? It’s not good. That’s not the way to do it. I think people should talk about it more, you know? Don’t have to be afraid to talk about it because you live on caribou and you got to protect it.”

John made this scraper, a tool used to take skin from a hide. He learned how to make it from his dad. “It’s beautiful, I’m so proud of it!,” he says. “My mom passed away a long time ago and she always would work on a caribou. She sews lots. This is what my dad made for my mom. It won’t cut the hide but it will take all the meat off. You can make a rope with it, or you can make a drum with it, or moccasins or any kind of clothing. It is made from the foreleg of a caribou because it is strong.”