Believing in the impossible: Marie Wilson on receiving highest honours in Canada, N.W.T.

Marie Wilson calls her recent awards "unforgettable."

On Wednesday, she was one of four recipients of the Order of the Northwest Territories, the highest honour for a civilian, recognizing outstanding achievement and dedication to the community.

But Wilson's achievements don't stop with the territory.

The day after receiving the territorial honour, Wilson was one of 113 appointed to the Order of Canada.

She's recognized for her work with the CBC, making daily television a reality in the North, as well as for her work as a commissioner with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.

• Order of the N.W.T. welcomes 4 new members
• 3 prominent Northerners among Order of Canada recipients

"I can't tell you what a nice sequence it is, and what a wonderful, unforgettable two days" it has been, Wilson said over the phone on Thursday.

"I really see it as a way of honouring all of those people in the community who have participated in this work."

Changing TV news in the North

Originally from Petrolia, Ont., Wilson's long legacy in the North beganin the early 1980s.

She was hired for CBC'sweekly TV news show at the timecalled Focus North. She was the one andonly host, reporter, researcher and writer for all three territories as well as northern Quebec.

She was a new mother at the time and recallswhat it was like to juggle that and the demands of hershow.

"There are legend stories of me having my babies in bassinets overnight" in the edit suites, Wilson said.

"We always had deadlines, which were airplanes" that flew the taped and edited TV show to Vancouver every week, whichprogrammers putin the systemso it could be broadcastback in the North.

"It was an extraordinary time."

But Wilson wanted more.

She was determined to bring daily television to the North, something her predecessors told her was not possible.

When Wilson became the regional director ofCBC North, she gainedthe leverage she needed to create two new broadcast programmes:CBC Northbeatin Englishand CBC Igalaaq in Inuktitut.

• Igalaaq, Northbeat celebrate 20 years: A look at how TV evolved in the North

"I can still see them [CBC programme managers] standing in our edit suite with their jaws dropped open because they couldn't believe we were doing simultaneousInuktitut translatingwhile the English programwas going to air," Wilson said.

Since then, many things have changed about the CBC and CBC North, but 20 years later, Northbeat and Igalaaq are still on the air.

"I'm so proud of that. It was an amazing thing we did."

The Anniversary of 'The Berger Report'

After Nunavutseparated from the N.W.T. andbecame a territory in 1999, Wilson felt the N.W.T. had been left behind, and people forgotwhat that territory still offered.

"I thought, there's so much that could be held up and honoured in this territory, so I made that my little mission."

No longer working for the CBC, Wilson created an event called "Back to the Future." It was an anniversary celebration of The Berger Report, the final report of an inquiry that looked into building a pipeline along the Mackenzie Valley. The inquiry was led by Supreme Court Justice Thomas Berger in the late 1970s.

• ARCHIVES |The Berger Pipeline Inquiry

Every premier of the N.W.T. since 1967 was invited to theBack to the Futureevent held in Yellowknife. The governor general was there too, along with Thomas Berger himself.

'This is a survivors' commission'

Years later when Wilson heard about the positions available with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, she knew she wanted to continue to help the territory and the country in any way she could.

"I felt I had things to offer and contribute," Wilson said.

Out of 450 applicants, Wilson was selected as one of the three commissioners for the TRC.

The commissioners spoke to survivors of the residential school system, where, for more than a century, there was an attempt to stripAboriginal children of their culture. For years after, many survivors of the so-called "cultural genocide" had unimaginable difficulty letting go of what happened to them.

That's where Wilson and the TRC came in.

"It is a very big deal to need to have a Truth and Reconciliation Commission," she said."It means something has gone terribly wrong. I think that was a really important aspect of defining my work."

• Truth and Reconciliation Commission final report points to 'growing crisis' for indigenous youth
• Truth and Reconciliation Commission urges Canada to confront 'cultural genocide' of residential schools
• TRC findings on residential schools to be used in Yukon classrooms
• Inuit leaders call for healing and education in wake of TRC final report

Wilson said she is "certain" her Order of the Northwest Territories and Order of Canada are tied to her work with the TRC "because that is increasingly on the national consciousness."

She said she always asked herself,"Who are we serving?"

"It was to really start with the basis of saying: this is a survivors' commission...really, the heroes of the story."