‘From the Elders: Hay River Stories’ highlights memories, teachings and experiences for future generations July 29, 2026
The video documentary ‘From the Elders: Hay River Stories’ by Aaron Tambour compiles interviews with 12 Elders, conveying their unique stories, memories, teachings and life experiences for future generations.
About a dozen people attended the screening of the two-and-a-half-hour video in the Soaring Eagle Friendship Centre Hall on July 11.
“After the video was done, everyone was happy with how it turned out and complimented me on it,” said Tambour, a photographer and videographer from K’atl’odeeche First Nation. “They were pretty excited about it.”
He said the audience liked the quality of the video and its audio, and a lot of them also told him it “brought back memories” and made them miss the “good old days of Hay River.” Tambour said his goal was to have people recount stories about Hay River that others can relate to and then reminisce about the town “back in the day.”
The 12 Elders featured in the video are: Doug Lamalice, Angie Sabourin, Sharon Pekok, Debbie Stanley, Georgina Fabian, Roy Fabian, Rhonda Plamondon, Bradley Jacobs, Lila Belanger, Joe Tambour, Mavis Klause and Fred Tambour.
The interviewees were in the 50s to 80s, said Tambour, and each had their own “fond memory” from when they were growing up in the Hay River area.
The project took eight months to produce and was funded through a grant from the National Sixties Scoop Healing Foundation of Canada.
“The highlight of the whole process was hearing the stories in-person first-hand, listening to them, getting their reaction and then watching them,” said Tambour. “When they thought about these memories, how it brought back emotions to them.”
“How they laughed at things because it was funny,” Tambour continued. “It was a genuine laugh, it wasn’t just a chuckle.”
“That’s what I was going for,” he said. “I wanted to bring back some of those good memories.”
Tambour said he was inspired to start this project by his father, who recounts his own stories “all the time.” He has numerous funny stories to tell and “really good memories” from Hay River, Tambour added.
“I thought to myself, I could probably get some more stories from other people too,” he said, noting that he then wanted to assemble a collection of these stories that “have this kind of vibe to it” for future generations to reflect on.
“We have stories of the disasters in Hay River that stand out quite a bit,” said Tambour, who used the flood and subsequent evacuations in 1963 as an example. “I’m not saying that those stories should not be captured, but I think that there’s more stories that should be captured that are a little more uplifting.”
Every Thursday, Tambour will release an episode on YouTube, featuring an interview with one of the dozen Elders. The first episode highlighting one of Sabourin’s stories and was published on July 16.
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