Posted on January 21, 2021 under Thursday Tidbits with no comments yet

Another Eze creation – an inukshuk carved of soapstone

 

“Learn more than you teach.”

This piece of advice was given to me by a very experienced teacher before I decided to travel north in November of 2019. I have thought about this a lot over the past 14 months. It seems that a week rarely goes by without me discovering something new about the Inuit people, their land, and their culture. I have been assured by many wise local people that I have just scratched the surface and that my education is in its infancy. That’s the good news. The bad news is that I’m edging closer to the age of 70 and at my rate of learning, I reckon that I will need to live as long as Methuselah (969 years) if I have any chance at all of understanding the mysteries and wonders of the north.

Monday was a storm day which gave me an opportunity to wander over to the museum to have a chat with Mary who oversees the facility along with Pingualit National Park. Previously that day she had asked me to drop by to see her. When I arrived, two other employees of the park, Lydia and Noah were sitting around the large table in the meeting room. Mary and Lydia work with a group of young people from the community, teaching them Inuit songs, throat singing, and drumming. Over the years they have performed for tourists who come from far and wide to visit Kangiqsujuaq and the National Park. They invited me to join the group to accompany them on guitar and to sing with them in Inuktitut and English. I’m not so sure about the throat singing but I will certainly give it a try.

My answer was swift. Here was an ideal opportunity for me to experience more local culture and also to learn more Inuktitut. When I first came up here, I thought I might hire someone to give me private lessons in Inuktitut but I have been very busy trying to learn how to teach which hasn’t afforded me a lot of free time.

Before getting into the details, I had a chance to spend some time with Noah. In the meeting room, there is an excellent map of the area which shows the location of rivers, lakes and the numerous camps that dot the landscape. Noah is a local guide, so his knowledge of the land is vast. Looking out the window with visibility near zero, I asked Noah about traveling on the land in these conditions. GPS doesn’t work all that well but centuries of living on the land has given the Inuit all the information they need to get them from point A to Point B. When I asked Noah if hunters ever get lost, he looked and me and said, “We follow the sun.”

I met with Mary and Lydia in Mary’s office. We talked at length about music and storytelling. Apparently, there are some elders who are fine musicians. I hope to have the opportunity to sit down with them and listen to their stories and their music. Mary brought out a book of songs written in Inuktitut. She sang a few phrases from a handful of songs. I found it quite interesting that many of the melodies are based on well known English songs. This will make it infinitely easier for me to follow along and accompany the group. I feel quite honored to be asked to be a part of the group.

Nunavut has a new television station dedicated to preserving Inuit language and culture. Uvagut is a product of Nunavut Independent Television. It was officially launched earlier this week. Uvagut TV will offer children’s programming, movies, documentaries, live shows and archives supplied by independent Inuit producers. This is a very exciting initiative for people in the north and for all Canadians who care about preserving culture and language.

Have a great weekend.

P.S. Yesterday I got a surprise call from the local medical clinic. A doctor was in town and |I was given an appointment to have her look at my arthritic knee. While waiting to be seen, I had the loveliest chat with the mayor of Kangiqsujuaq. She is a very smart, able woman. Of course we talked about the weather with an impending blizzard today. I listened as she explained how the clouds revealed the weather forecast. She also talked about the importance of the moon and the stars in Inuit culture. Frankly, I was mesmerized and even more so when she told me that her late mother was a distinguished educator and recipient of the Order of Canada. The learning continues.

Posted on January 18, 2021 under Monday Morning Musings with 2 comments

 

Oh, Lord, for a hot tub…

 

“My body’s aching and my time is at hand,

And I won’t make it any other way.”

Fire and Rain. James Taylor

When one is completely baffled for a conversation starter, he/she can always fall back on the weather and health.

So, I’ll start with the weather. I’m not about to trot out my bathing suit any time soon but the weather in the north is unseasonably warm. We are in the heart of winter up here and we have only had a handful of days when the temperature has been in the -30s. Normally, days of -30, -40 and -50 are the norm for January but so far this month most days have been in the -20 range with the odd day in the teens. Let me be clear. Those of you in the south must think that -20 is brutally cold but I can assure you that the same temperature in Montreal or Halifax feels markedly different. I have found that the cold in the Maritimes can go straight through you even when properly dressed. The problem in so many places is that the temperature whipsaws and one is never sure what to wear. Up here, it is winter. Most days are sunny and cold. If you’re dressed properly (a given) you rarely feel cold.

If you have any doubts about global warming, just ask the Inuit hunters. Freeze ups are later and shorter, affecting the hunting season.

I received a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle for Christmas. Under normal circumstances, I can finish a big puzzle in a reasonable amount of time. This Christmas was not normal. I couldn’t go back home to Nova Scotia so with fewer distractions and a vacation spanning three weeks, one would think that I would have made a significant dent in the puzzle. Wrong. I was so busy watching and participating in Inuit outdoor games, working on my next book, going for walks, watching movies and hanging out with colleagues, that there were days on end that I didn’t touch the puzzle. And now that I’m back to school, my output is even lower. At my current pace I will be lucky to finish it by next Christmas. I guess it’s better to be busy than bored.

Do you remember when you were young and strong and fleet of foot? I’m sure you do. The problem for many of us these days is trying to remember what we did yesterday. I can see the nods of agreement. When we were young, we attacked everything with vigour and rarely suffered any consequences.

I was reminded last Friday that I no longer enjoy the vitality of youth. I decided to join our two grade six classes in a game of indoor soccer in the gym. While I was running up and down the floor for nearly 35 minutes, I felt awesome. I never considered myself a superior athlete in my youth, but I loved sports and tried most of them. I could skate endlessly on frozen ponds or play basketball for hours at “the Centre”.

Luckily, this soccer game was the last period of the day and the week. It didn’t take very long for my body to revolt. I have a bad back, a wonky knee, and a weak mind. If I had a strong mind, I would have chosen to sit on the sidelines and not play soccer with children nearly 60 years younger than me. Dripping with sweat, I walked the hundred metres to my house. Good thing it wasn’t -50 or my face would have turned to ice.

I sank into the couch and then all hell broke loose. EVERYTHING hurt. Of course, my knee and back were absolutely killing me. Ditto for my neck, my arms, my toes, my fingers. I swear to god that the hair on my head hurt. At least there were only a few strands of hair! I had a headache and my ears were ringing. My eyes hurt.

I dreamed of the hot tub at our former time share in Florida.

The couch in my apartment might be as old as me. When you sit down, it kind of takes the shape of your body. When you lie down, you simply disappear. Like a five- alarm fire, my body told me that it immediately needed help in the form of painkillers. I’m fortunate that there were no hidden cameras in my apartment to watch the pathetic display that ensued. How does one extricate themselves from a couch when their body refuses to cooperate? I rolled from side to side and tried my hardest to swing my legs over onto the floor. Of course, I hurled expletives at no one in particular. My back and my knee told me to just shut up and get the extra strength medication they needed. I wobbled and teetered and eventually got myself upright. I inched towards the medicine cabinet looking much like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. I took double the recommended dosage and slathered Voltaren all over my body. Being Friday, I silently prayed that none of my colleagues would pop in for a sociable at happy hour. There was nothing happy about this that I could discern.

Note to self. In future, stick to gentler pursuits like knitting, puzzle making, pie making, and writing.

Have a great, pain free week!

 

Posted on January 14, 2021 under Thursday Tidbits with 2 comments

 

Eze earrings

 

After an extended Christmas vacation, we’re back at school. Despite the restrictions and lockdowns in the province of Quebec, our region of Nunavik is the one exception. Nunavik is the part of Quebec’s territory that is located north of the 55^th parallel. It covers a territory of approximately 507,000 square kilometers and is inhabited by some 13,000 people called Nunavimmiut, who live in fourteen villages. The very large majority of Nunavimmiut are Inuit. The language of the Inuit is Inuktitut. In Inuktitut, different word endings are used to distinguish between something, two of something and more than two of something. Therefore 1=Inuk; 2= Inuuk; 3+ =Inuit.

Covid cases in the north have been few and far between. It’s hard to put a finger on why this is so but one might surmise that the Inuit have had experience before with other pandemics and take very seriously the threat of the coronavirus. Anyone returning from travel to the south has to quarantine for two weeks. Facilities have been arranged in the community to accommodate those travelers. Teachers returning from Christmas holidays are isolating in their own apartments. As Yogi Berra said, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

The earrings that you see above were crafted by a very talented Inuk. His name is Eze. He is 31 years old and tells me that he has been carving soapstone and making earrings since he was 14. I am told that he is very good at what he does. The earrings in the picture have an ulu as the base. As I wrote about in a previous piece, an ulu is a knife that is traditionally used by Inuit women for all kinds of things, like skinning and cleaning animals, cutting children’s hair and cutting food. I plan to meet with Eze one of these days to learn more about him and his excellent works of art. P.S. Despite the fact that I have a tattoo (a memento of my Camino walk), I’m not planning on starting to wear earrings any time soon… but one never knows! I have done crazier things and let’s face it, at this point in my life, I’m not overly concerned about what people might think about my fashion choices.

Envy is not a word that I use often. I’m pretty lucky. I am creeping up on 70 with an assortment of aches and pains (which seem to have gone viral lately) but no serious health issues. I am doing work that I find interesting and fulfilling. I have a nice apartment and plenty of food – too much if you look at my waistline these days.

I saw a post on Facebook yesterday that had me drooling. Next week at Pingualuit National Park, there is going to be an igloo building demonstration along with ice fishing and a number of other activities. The park is about 120 kilometers southwest of our village. Apparently one of the elders will be there to lead the demonstration. The park is the site of a meteoritic crater. https://www.nunavikparks.ca/en/parks/pingualuit/. I am envious. I would love to be there to listen, learn and document this four- day event.

However, not all is lost. A few days ago, I was up at the airport to pick up some cargo for teachers. I ran into a local man that has an Antigonish connection. Fifty or so years ago, he was a student of a retired Antigonish educator who, along with his wife, spent many years in the north. Last year when I arrived in Kangiqsujuaq, I brought him an old black and white picture of he and two fellow students when they were teenagers. We have bumped into each other a few times over the past 15 months. He asked me if I would like to go ice fishing with him. I am eagerly waiting for the phone to ring.

I remember when I first came up here. I asked an experienced teacher from back home for some advice. “Learn more than you teach.”

The learning continues.

Have a great weekend.