A new fund is established in loving memory of Darrel Mack, who passed away at the age of 54 on March 30 at his home in Yellowknife surrounded by his family. Mack was diagnosed with stage four esophageal cancer in early 2021 and told he had a 2 per cent chance of surviving two years. Darrel battled what he called “the fight of his life,” for over double that time, living a life dedicated to his family and community.
Korry Garvey, executive director of the YK Community Foundation, says the establishment of the Darrel Mack Memorial Fund at the Yellowknife Community Foundation speaks to an important mission of food security in NWT. Over one quarter of people living in the far North experience food insecurity, especially for young families.
Community and family was most important to Mack.
“He had the strongest of hearts, an indomitable spirit and a powerful love of family, friends and life. The way that he lived his life with dignity, integrity, generosity, humility, and a hilarious sense of humor was truly an inspiration to all who knew him. He was a charismatic person with strong values who liked to lift up everyone around him, and to help those in need. He maintained his positive energy to the very end,” Darrel Mack’s family wrote this tribute upon his passing on March 30:
“Darrel was born in Yellowknife, NT, but moved to Nanaimo, BC with his parents at the age of 4. He was a proud member of the Łıı́d́ lıı̨ ̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation. He returned north at 17 to attend Akaitcho Hall, and stayed. His early life was marked by challenges, but he never failed to rise, or to stand up to bullies from the earliest age. Darrel loved boxing, martial arts, chess, and rock ‘n’ roll. He incorporated a warrior philosophy into everything he did. After high school he embarked on a career as a Correctional Officer for 23 years, where he excelled, before becoming a Behavioral Health Worker. He began his dream job as a Parks Maintenance Officer just two weeks before he was diagnosed with Stage 4 esophageal cancer and given a one-year prognosis. Ever true to his resilient spirit, he went the full 12 rounds in the ring, fighting and thriving for four years, living every moment to the fullest. In the time they had together, Darrel and his wife Leela traveled the world,” said his family in the tribute.
Gilday and Mack wrote the song “North Star Calling” together
Garvey said the Yellowknife Community Foundation is proud to carry forward Darrel’s memory in a way that reflects his belief in standing up for others and making life better for the next generation.
Garvey explained that the Darrel Mack Memorial Fund also connects in with other initiatives at the foundation including funds focussed on agriculture and innovation within the agriculture sector. These initiatives help to create community spaces where people can join together, making places where food sustainability is possible like building community gardens there. Garvey explained that all of the projects at the foundation are interconnected and share a mission to help people across the territories.
The foundation has a number of ongoing initiatives to support housing, to help support folks experiencing homelessness, and initiatives to help support literacy along with many other projects that are working to improve their community.
“They’re focusing on like a very important area of need in the N.W.T. and they all kind of do work together because a lot of a lot of the social like challenges and a lot of the challenges of the environment are all tied together,” said Garvey.
The Yellowknife Community Foundation was established in 1993 to give individuals and organizations a way to support community projects with ongoing impact, ensuring that funds like the Darrel Mack Memorial Fund will continue, carrying Darrel’s legacy a long way into the future.
“Darrel clearly made a deep impact on his community, and it’s evident how much love he left behind. We’re honoured to help memorialize him through the creation of the Darrel Mack Memorial Fund, and we look forward to supporting young people and single parents with food security once the fund begins granting,” said Sara Brown, who is board chair of the foundation.
Donations to the Darrel Mack Memorial Fund will help carry on his legacy of care and support for the North, said Garvey.
Community donations can be made by following the link, available on the Yellowknife community foundation site
“Food security is very, very important in the North. There’s a lot of agricultural projects, people trying to grow their own food in different communities”
Garvey said over the last few years, there many people across the territories are mobilizing ways to build food security. Through projects that teach community members gardening skills and how to grow your own food in the summer.
“In smaller communities harvesting meat is really, really important and a big part of cultural resurgence, and also making sure that there’s healthy food for community members,” said Garvey.
“There’s a lot of people in the N.W.T. who are struggling with food security in that they’re not getting the amount of food that they need and the amount of healthy food that they need. And everyone deserves to have healthy food on the table because it helps them with making sure that their brain is healthy and that they’re able to take care of themselves and then pursue their dreams and do the things (they need to do to) reach their goals. So, it’s kind of tied in with everything,” emphasized Garvey.
Data collected by Stats Canada in 2021 showed that over one-quarter of people in the far North experience food insecurity. Findings showed that over 25 per cent of people living in the territories lived in a household that experienced varying levels of food insecurity ranging from marginal, moderate or severe food insecurity.
Data collected in 2020 showed that nearly 30 per cent of people living in the North experienced food insecurity.
“Similar to incomes, food insecurity rates varied by territory, with Nunavut (46.1%) having the highest rate, followed by the Northwest Territories (22.2%) and Yukon (12.8%),” said the authors of the study.
Data showed that food insecurity was especially prevalent among Indigenous people, with 41.2 per cent of Indigenous people experiencing some form of food insecurity.
Higher poverty and food insecurity rates were closely linked to higher rates of core housing need (lack of adequate and affordable housing).
Data collected one year earlier in 2020 echoed the findings, showing that many interconnected issues are contributing to food insecurity in the North including high cost of living especially for remote communities.
The authors of the report also emphasized that First Nations, Inuit and Metis people face greater risks of experiencing food insecurity due to the affects of colonial practices and colonization that disrupted their culture and traditions including relationships with the land and food systems.
“These policies also negatively affected intergenerational knowledge transfer of harvesting and hunting skills, and of healthy eating habits.20 Access to (and consumption of) traditional foods is further affected by environmental dispossession (that is, diminished access by Indigenous peoples to the resources of their traditional lands), climate change and the presence of contaminants in the environment,” said the authors of the study who emphasized that the consequences of food insecurity are far‑reaching.
“(Food insecurity) can have negative effects on physical and mental health for both children and adults. Among other things, food insecurity has been associated with malnutrition, infections, chronic diseases and obesity, as well as with distress, social exclusion, depression, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts.Some researchers have identified food insecurity as being the “largest [contributor] to the concentration of psychological distress and suicidal behaviours among low‑income Indigenous peoples in Canada.” In the case of children, hunger caused by food insecurity has been found to have a negative impact on the ability to learn, thus contributing to poor educational outcomes.”
