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Midway between the Richardson Mountains and Inuvik is a place called Aklavik. First established as a Hudson's Bay trading post in 1912, it grew to be one of the Mackenzie Delta's most prominent communities, with over 1600 inhabitants by 1952.

Unfortunately, the settlement was situated on land prone to erosion and flooding, so the federal government decided to build a new community nearby and relocate Aklavik's population. While many would leave for the drier pastures of what became Inuvik, other residents adamantly refused this uprooting and clung to their riverbanks.

Aklavik still floods every ten years or so, and its population continues to diminish bit by bit, but I really did get a palpable sense of a community being bound together, and it wasn't just because the town's motto is "Never Say Die." My gracious hosts were fellow volunteers with the same organization as me, and through them, I got a chance to meet all sorts of wonderful folk. One highlight in particular was a party celebrating the crowning of this year's Rendezvous King and Queen, where I learned to say lots of inappropriate things in Gwich'in.

The streetscapes of Aklavik seem to manifest the town's character. The buildings are some of the most iconic I have seen in the North, their weathered textures and tired angles only adding to Aklavik's aura of resiliency.