Yukon who is who

Margaret Workman, Äyedindaya

Margaret Workman was born into the Wolf clan at Aishihik and was raised knowing how to live on the land.¹⁾ She was placed in the Baptist Mission School in Whitehorse at age seven where she was confined to speaking English.²⁾

Margaret Workman has a Native Language Instructor certificate and a diploma from Yukon College. In 2001, she received an Associate of Applied Science Degree from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She gained extensive experience teaching Southern Tutchone at all levels of the school system including Yukon College and the University of Alaska. Margaret developed the first grades 11 and 12 Athapaskan language program at F.H. Collins Secondary School in Whitehorse. She was the original impetus for creating the Dákeyi CD ROM project (published 1996). In 1998, she received an Innovations in Teaching Award from the Yukon Department of Education. In 2000, she published Kwädây Kwändür: Traditional Southern Tutchone Stories, compiled and translated from interviews with seven elders.³⁾

Margaret was one of the original members of the Yukon Geographical Place Names Board and was re-appointed on June 1, 2004 for her third term. She retired in June 2004 after being a Southern Tutchone (Dákwänje) language specialist for over twenty years.⁴⁾ In 2015, Workman was given the National Council of the Federation Literacy Award, established by Canada’s premiers to recognise achievements in literacy.⁵⁾ It celebrated her lifelong commitment to the preservation of Indigenous language in the Yukon and counted her among Canada’s leaders in literacy.⁶⁾