Staff Profile: Arthur Rabesca, Ni Hat'ni Dene Guardian

Arthur Rabesca joined the Ni Hat’ni Dene crew in July 2023. He’s spent the last eight months patrolling Thaidene Nëné, interacting with visitors, cleaning up sites around the protected area, building and renovating cabins, and taking kids out on the land. The best part of being a guardian has been providing for his home community of Łutsël K’é. “Seeing the faces of the Elders when you hand them the goodies, seeing the smiles on their faces, that’s the highlight of my day.”
 
Arthur was raised to help and to see the value of helping. “My grandpa always said, You’ll be very lucky, blessed if you do all that good stuff for other people. It will come back to you.” Helping others was one of a number of important lessons that Arthur learned from his grandparents, Mary Louise and J.B. Rabesca, who raised him. “My grandpa taught me the traditional ways. He taught me my language, trapping, hunting, fishing. He taught me to respect the land and the animals, to only take what you need. He had good wisdom.”
 
Arthur grew up in town, in Łutsël K’é, but his grandparents took him out on the land every chance they got. “We would go hunting around the Łutsël K’é area. We’d go all the way down to Basile Bay, hunting, fishing, trapping. I know all of the area down that way.” One of the things that has been interesting for Arthur since becoming a guardian has been spending more time on the tundra. “I’d hardly been out on the barrenlands before this job, just a few times by plane when I was working with the mining companies. It’s different out there. I’m learning as I go. We all do.”
 
Arthur is thankful for the opportunity with the Thaidene Nëné Department because it’s allowed him to come home. “I worked in the mines for about 10 years, from exploration camps to mining camps. I got tired of it. I got tired of being away from home. It’s not a job for a person with a family.”
 
Arthur wanted to be a guardian because of the way that he was raised. “I wanted to teach others, like kids and people that don’t know. I wanted to teach them about the land, the language, the culture, our heritage. They need to learn all of that stuff, so they can pass it on to their families.” Arthur has three children and five grandchildren, so he’s aware of the other things that compete for young people’s attention. “Kids are too much into games and the internet. They’re not into learning their culture. I want to get them learning how to be on the land.”
 
Arthur feels a deep responsibility to the land of his ancestors and also to future generations. “We have to take care of it, protect it from development, from mining,” he says of Thaidene Nëné. Arthur has firsthand experience of the impacts of mining, having worked on mines at different stages of development. “When I worked at exploration camps, it was so beautiful at the beginning. The lake, caribou, everything. Now I look at the mine and it’s one big hole, there’s no water. All that just for a little piece of rock. I don’t want to see that happen to Thaidene Nëné. We have to leave something for our kids.”
 
When asked to name a special place in Thaidene Nëné, Arthur talked about Ts’ąkuı Thedá Dezé (Lockhart River) and Ts’ąkuı Thedá (Lady of the Falls). “Those are spiritual places,” he explains. “If you believe in the stories behind them, you will be taken care of.” He also has fond memories of the area around T’u Chogh Ka Tł’áázı̨ (Basile Bay), where his grandpa raised his family and where he used to trap and fish. “The house is gone, but the spot is still there. I go by sometimes because it reminds me of him. Reminds me of sitting by the woodstove in candlelight, listening to him tell stories. I’ll never forget what he taught me.”

---