It has taken 14 years of research, fact-checking, writing, editing, and designing, but it’s finally done. And it’s just in time for the Territorial Experimental Ski Training TEST reunion, which, next Saturday, will draw to Whitehorse former participants in the program between 1963 and 2013 from across Canada.
“It” is the biography of Jean-Marie Mouchet, who realized the negative impact of colonialism on the Indigenous people in northern Canada in the 1940s.
Consequently, he designed a ski program to help youth reconnect to the land and provide them with a means to adapt to the social and cultural change that was on the horizon.
Local author John Firth will launch his book on Mouchet at 6:30 p.m. Friday on the tent grounds at Taylor House (the Commissioner’s Residence) on Main Street near the escarpment.
Mouchet’s Territorial Experimental Ski Training (TEST) program yielded multiple Olympians and made cross-country skiing the fastest-growing winter sport in Canada. It also placed both northern and Canadian skiers on the cross-country skiing world stage in addition to producing many First Nation leaders who led their people into the 21st century.
Music at the launch will be provided by Roxx Hunter, while finger foods and non-alcoholic drinks will be made by Blue Feather Music Festival food guru Viola Papequash. The event is being organized by Gary Bailie.
Firth will be reading from and signing books, which will be available for sale on site. The mic will be available for others to speak of their time with Mouchet and the TEST program and how it influenced their lives.