Allane Brine is celebrating Canada's 150th birthday in her own personal way.
On Wednesday, Brine was ready to set off to the remote community of Old Crow in the Yukon in memory of her father Kenneth Preece, a retired RCMP officer.
After her father's death in Prince George in 2010, Brine was excited to receive her father's memorabilia, including personal photos, artwork, journals, mukluks worn by her dad and various other beaded items, all from Old Crow.
"My father has been to many places but Old Crow, this is the place he talked about the most. The people fascinated him and he enjoyed their company. It meant so much to him," Brine said.
"It's time that I take these memories and bring them back home."
Brine, who lives in Prince George, will be joined by the RCMP on her arrival in Old Crow. She will meet with members of the community, distribute photos to ancestors of those in the original photos and she hopes to scatter some of her father's ashes.
Some items will also be placed in the museum and put on display at the RCMP detachment in Old Crow.
"It just does not do justice to keep it and leave it in a box or sell it. So I thought, I have to go there. I've always wanted to see it and my mom knew that. When she passed away last fall, I knew I had to go and I knew I had to do it on my own," Brine said.
Preece became an RCMP officer in Regina in 1947 and shortly after, he was sent to Old Crow.
"Back then, they weren't given an option. You just went wherever they sent you," Brine said.
But for her father, it was dream come true.
He was stationed for obligatory northern duty with one other officer at the time.
"My dad grew up in Saskatchewan so he was used to 40-below and to the loneliness of being in that kind of environment," Brine said. "He had a dog team to get him around and he would travel two weeks at a time in freezing cold temperatures. He even made igloos, which we grew up making too."
From surviving a plane crash to outliving the harshest of storms, Preece had many stories to share with his daughter about his adventures in Old Crow.
"My dad would go out onto the lake and make a gun powder trail on it. That was his way of celebrating. A big explosion of gun powder on the lake," Brine says, smiling as she sifts through the many original photos her father had taken in Old Crow.
In 1953, Preece was transferred to Prince Albert, Sask. He was also stationed in Whitehorse; Resolute Bay, N.W.T.; Stoney Rapids, Sask. and Regina during his career.
He moved his wife and two children from Ottawa before settling down in Prince George in 1970.
Preece retired as a staff sergeant with 25 years of service.
"As a daughter of an RCMP officer, you learned respect. And we did so much as kids and learned so much from him," Brine said.
"He had so many experiences from traveling through snow storms and he even had friends killed in the line of duty. My family is so proud that he was an RCMP officer and that's reflected today by my two sons and how they have grown up to be. And they along with my husband think that what I'm doing is so amazing."
Today, there are 245 people living in Old Crow with three stationed RCMP officers.
Brine believes that it is finally the right time and that her father's memories need to find their way home, especially on the eve of Canada's 150th birthday.
"For me this is what people had to do back then. This is how we became Canada. People like my dad made people aware of the territories and the Yukon. We have neglected our indigenous people in the past and I want this artwork to go back to them," Brine said.
"I felt this was something I had to do, to take it all back for them and for my father."
