Kwäday Dän Kenji — Long Ago Peoples Place — marks 20 years

A Yukon museum is marking its 20th anniversary — and the 20th time some of its temporary exhibits have been rebuilt.

Called Kwäday Dän Kenji in Southern Tutchone, the Long Ago Peoples Place is an outdoor museum of traditional Southern Tutchone culture located outside of Whitehorse near the community of Champagne. 

The museum includes dwellings from pre-contact society when aboriginal people would travel and build temporary shelters. 

The dwellings, made of tree-bark and spruce and insulated with dried mud and moss, provided well for families' needs but they weren't intended to last a winter. That means almost all the structures are re-built every year. 

Harold Johnson, the museum's founder, does most of the building these days. 

He's been consulting with elders about the proper techniques and giving tours since opening the museum in 1995. 

"[It's been] the best 20 years of my life I would say," says Johnson. "I've had the opportunity to not only know — but know on a deeper level — our elders, and have had relationships with really strong beautiful people."

A family business

On Sunday, the museum welcomed visitors with free admission and included a performance by the Dakwakada Dancers from Haines Junction. 

Whitney Johnson-Ward, who was serving ladles of moose stew and bannock near the campfire, was four years old when her family started this camp. 

"I've basically been raised up here," she says. "As a kid, all summer long we'd live in a wall tent, until we brought the cabin here." 

She still returns every summer to help build new shelters with her dad. 

"It feels good, it just feels like we've accomplished a lot. It's a lot of work," she says. "When I look at it, I'm proud of it." 

Harold Johnson says it's been a challenge to keep the structures authentic.When the museum started, he says, an advisory panel of Southern Tutchone elders had 15 people. 

All but three have passed away. 

"A lot of them are gone now after 20 years. I've had that great honour of walking a few miles with these beautiful people and they shared with me and their patience with me," Johnson says. 

7 km off the beaten path

The museum, which is owned by the Johnson family but receives contributions from Champagne Aishihik First Nation, has seen a sharp decline in business since 2002 when a new section of the Alaska Highway was completed which bypasses the business. Visitors now have to drive seven kilometres from the new highway and as a result, many don't bother.

But that hasn't stopped people passionate about the museum from continuing their work. 

John Fingland, a Champagne Aishihik First Nation member and tour guide, says the museum documents the life of people who travelled by season and lived on the region's abundant salmon, caribou, berries and other foods.

"I think people's impression of Yukon — they think of it as a cold, desolate place — is changed by coming here and realizing the abundance the Yukon actually has." 

Asked about Kwäday Dän Kenji's future, he takes delight in saying there might be a new exhibit: him. 

"I hope to spend a summer here one day and just wear moosehide clothing, do all these things traditionally and just be part of the place itself," he says.