Julie Cruikshank
Julie Cruikshank came to the Yukon after she received her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of Toronto in 1967. She was working with Dr. Jim Lotz on his contract regarding the status of women. Julie worked on issues concerning Indigenous northern women. She spent three months in the Yukon in 1968 and made some good friends. She moved to the Yukon in the 1970s. Her friends were involved in the political groundwork for the land claims process. They wanted stories recorded to support the land claims and Julie became involved in the project. She returned to school and graduate studies in the mid-1980s and continued her interest in the importance of stories and oral history.1)
Julie Cruikshank was given a 1985 heritage award from the Yukon Historical & Museums Association. Her work was of vital importance in the international recognition given to the significance of Yukon First Nations.2) Julie was appointed an Officer to the Order of Canada in 2012. She is the author of many important and award-winning books including: Life Lived Like a Story (1990), Reading Voices (1991), The Social Life of Stories, (1998) and Do Glaciers Listen? (2005).