Mother in Old Crow, Yukon, starts petition to clean up and improve recreational spaces
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Living in a small and remote northern community like Old Crow, Yukon, can mean limited access to recreational activities — especially when many of the spaces meant for activities like baseball or soccer are being instead used to store industrial equipment and supplies.
Jeneen Frei Njootli, a Vuntut Gwitchin citizen and mother of two young children in Old Crow, has started a petition to try to change that. Njootli says the community needs options available for outdoor play.
"Every single one of our fields has [construction] equipment in it," Njootli said. "There's nowhere safe for our children to play soccer or play baseball, because they're being used as industrial storage."
Njootli said there are shipping containers, rolls of chain-link fencing, building materials such as loose gravel, and organic material on those recreational fields, making them unsafe and unusable for kids.
According to Njootli, that leaves few options for families and kids: the playground at the school, a playground located in the "downtown" area, or in one of the community's subdivisions.
Njootli said the community of about 250 people used to have an arena where children and youth could skate and play, but it was recently demolished after the condition of the building became too unstable for public use.
Njootli said a government services shop is set to be built in the vacant space. Njootli said the shop is needed, but that it's frustrating there's been no discussion about creating a recreational space to replace the arena.
"Our youth need to know they matter. Show them that they matter by prioritizing spaces that are just for them," Njootli said.
The online petition, signed by 85 people from Old Crow and elsewhere as of Wednesday afternoon, urges the Vuntut Gwitchin chief and council "to prioritize, protect, and invest in recreational spaces that serve all of our community members," by relocating the government services shop to another site, by cleaning up the baseball diamond and soccer field, and by developing a new multi-use recreation space at a site on the riverfront.
Njootli said the issue is one for the whole community to address.
"This has been years and years and years in the making," Njootli said. "Over a decade of slow, corroding of community spaces in favour of development. Yes we need the development, but it can't come at the cost of our recreation spaces."
CBC News contacted the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation about the issue but the First Nation declined to comment.
CBC News also reached out to Vuntut Gwitchin MLA Annie Blake, but she wasn't immediately available for an interview.
Jeneen Frei Njootli's brother, Stan Njootli Jr., said recreation creates healthy children, and healthy families. He said he feels that there's a lot of effort to "build up" Old Crow, but not enough being put toward supporting sustainable recreation.
"That's where the healing really begins for First Nations people," Stan Njootli Jr. said. "It's on the land, and being active.
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