Eliza Hammer

Eliza was born in a tent on the bank of the Mackenzie River at East Three. Her Inuvialuit mother Mabel, and her Gwich’in-Métis father Malcolm Firth, were well-known hunters and trappers. Mabel grew beautiful vegetable gardens to nourish the family, and  Malcolm was a logger for the Department of Public Works. He would drift down the East Channel for three days bringing 1,500-log rafts to present-day Inuvik, where his logs were used to build the new community.

After she was born in East Three, Eliza and her family lived in a cabin near the Mackenzie River. She went to school with her older sister and brother in Fort McPherson, but spent holidays with family back at her home in the cabin. One year the river flooded so high that her father took the windows and doors out of the cabin and they could canoe right through it!

Eliza has worked in a diversity of positions including bringing councilors and clients together for the Canadian Mental Health Association, and developing and delivering programming like sewing and cooking groups to support family learning for the Healthy Babies Program at Ingamo Hall. She worked as a custodian for 14 years at the Charlotte Vehus Group Home before bringing her experiences to her position at WARC, helping keep all the facility’s staff and visitors safe and comfortable. Growing up, Eliza spent time in the communities of Fort McPherson, Inuvik, and Aklavik. In the late-1990s, after some time with her children in Calgary, Eliza returned to Inuvik.