In 2013 Dr. John Sandlos, Department of History, and Dr. Arn Keeling, Department of Geography, created the Toxic Legacies Project with funding from a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Development Grant and in partnership with Alternatives North and the Yellowknives Dene First Nation.

The project's mandate is to examine various ways to communicate and commemorate the history and long-term legacies of arsenic contamination at Yellowknife’s Giant Mine.

Today, 237,000 tons of arsenic trioxide sits in 14 chambers underground, a staggering amount of toxic material that the federal government is containing through a “frozen block” method until a more permanent solution can be found.

The documentary Guardians of Eternity was one of the many public outreach initiatives to flow out of the Toxic Legacies Project. It traces the history of arsenic contamination at the abandoned Giant Mine, and examines the perplexing question of what to do about the problem today. 

It will be screened on the St. John’s campus on Thursday, Nov. 26, at 7 p.m. in room 2109 of the Science building.  All are welcome to attend.

See www.facebook.com/events/681614945272392/ for more details. The event is co-sponsored by the Canada Research Chair in Aboriginal Studies and the Aboriginal Resources Office.

“One of the questions we pose in the film is, given the potentially very long-term nature of the problem, how can we communicate the hazards and perpetual care requirements at Giant Mine to future generations?” said Dr. Sandlos. “Can the mine remediation program incorporate a program of restorative justice for the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, who bore the brunt of arsenic contamination from the mine in terms of health impacts and the loss of access to traditional lands?”

In addition to the film screening, the event will also feature what Drs. Sandlos and Keeling call “a mini-launch” of Mining and Communities in Northern Canada: History, Politics and Memory, which will be released by the University of Calgary Press on Nov. 30.  The book examines historical and contemporary social, economic and environmental impacts of mining on Aboriginal communities in Northern Canada.

It is the result of what Dr. Sandlos calls “an army of researchers” collecting stories of Indigenous Peoples experience with mining and includes papers from the first generation of students to work with Drs. Sandlos and Keeling on their SSHRC project.

Among the Memorial contributors are Patricia Boulter (MA, history), Alexandra Winton (MA, geography), Jane Hammond (MA, history), Jean-Sébastien Boutet (MA, geography), Hereward Longley (MA, history), Dr. Andrea Procter (PhD anthropology and post-doctoral fellow with the Labrador Institute from September 2014-August 2015), Scott Midgley (MA, geography), and Heather Green (MA, history).