Franz van de Velde, O.M.I. (1909-2002)

Abstract

Franz Van de Velde, O.M.I. [Oblates of Mary Immaculate], a Roman Catholic missionary well known in the Kitikmeot and northern Hudson Bay regions, died in Marelbeke, Belgium, on 22 February 2002 at age 92. Member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate religious order, cultural historian, author, and genealogist, Father Franz (Frans) was born in Belgium on 28 November 1909 to Arthur Van de Velde and Gabriella Lanens de Lier. He graduated from a Jesuit secondary school in 1929, but chose to join the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a worldwide missionary order founded in France. He took his first vows as an Oblate on 8 September 1930, in Niewenhove, and was ordained a priest by Bishop Rassneur on 8 September 1933 in Velaines, Belgium. Father Van de Velde received his obedience to minister in the Hudson Bay Apostolic Vicariate in March 1937, and on 26 May 1937, with Bishop Arsène Turquetil, he boarded the Normandie in Le Havre en route to New York, Montreal, and Churchill. After overwintering in Repulse Bay, Northwest Territories, he arrived in Pelly Bay (Kugaaruk) on 23 April 1938. Father Pierre Henry, who had established the Pelly Bay mission on Simpson Peninsula in 1935, introduced him to ministry in the Kitikmeot region. Father Franz spent the next 50 years of his life in the Canadian Arctic, mainly in the Pelly Bay and Kitikmeot region until 1965, when he moved to Igloolik. On 12 April 1958, he became a Canadian citizen in a ceremony at Pelly Bay, with Justice Jack Sissons presiding. His last missionary mandate in the Churchill Hudson Bay Diocese (1969-86) was to Sanerajak (Hall Beach), where he established the Coeur Douloureux et Immaculé de Marie parish in 1969. A Canadian Arctic Producers publication, Canadian Inuit Artifacts, described Ataata Vinivi (his Inuktitut name) as a missionary, ethnologist, author, and explorer. An avid chronicler of many things, he contributed some 35 articles to ESKIMO, the Churchill Hudson Bay diocesan magazine, on a wide range of topics, such as Inuit legends, acts ofrevenge and retribution, hunting stories, snow and its uses, and Arctic wildlife encounters. His article on Inuit rules for sharing seal meat after a hunt has been reprinted in several other journals. A project dear to his heart was the transliteration and translation of the autobiography and memoirs of his faithful guide, Bernard Irqugaqtuq. He held Bernard and his wife Agnes Nullut of Kugaaruk in highest esteem. The celebrated Netsilik Eskimo Film Series, shot in Kugaaruk in the early 1960s, and directed by Dr. Asen Balikci, could not have been made without the help of Father Guy Mary-Rousselière and Father Van de Velde. Currently distributed in video format by the National Film Board of Canada, the film series remains a valuable educational asset to this day. In 1984, the Government of Canada officially adopted the Inuktitut names of 313 Arctic geographic features, a decision based on Father Van de Velde's efforts to record some 600 names he had collected from 1938 to 1958 in the Kugaaruk-Taloyoak-Gjoa Haven area. ... His painstakingly recorded genealogical records of the Pelly Bay people back to the time of Roald Amundsen (1903-06) occupy 4250 handwritten and typed pages. Photographs of elders, now kept in the local government offices of Kugaaruk, came from his vast, carefully annotated photograph collection, now located in the Oblate Archives in Ottawa. ... Father Van de Velde was honoured by Belgium as "Knight in the Order of the Crown" ... in Ottawa on 25 February 1986. He received the Order of Canada award ... on 11 April 1984. ... Father Van de Velde retired from northern parish ministry in 1986 and spent the rest of his life in Belgium. ... On learning of Father Van de Velde's death, Sidonie wrote: ... I remember many things, but most of all his words: Help people, and pray for them! ... Indeed, this legendary figure, described by Bishop Reynald Rouleau as "an example of immense determination," has left an indelible mark on the spiritual and cultural land scape of Nunavut.