Two Feasts

*Warning: This post contains images that some readers may find graphic.

The Qikiqtani Inuit Association (QIA) hosted a community meeting & feast on November 20.  The focus of the meeting was to present & discuss the findings of the progress report on the Tallurutiup Imanga Inuit Impact and Benefit Agreement (TIIIBA) negotiations.  QIA and the Government of Canada have been in talks since early 2018 to create a marine conservation area in the high arctic.  So far, both parties have reached an agreement in principle.  If the negotiations are a success, the Tallurutiup Imanga National Marine Conservation Area (TINMCA) will be created.  The feast would conclude the meeting.

            

I walked into the community hall at 6pm to find an impressive setup.  There were three tables at the front, draped with QIA banners.  There were also two separate standing banners on opposite sides of the stage.  A large project screen hung above the stage.  A large delicious cake sat on the table on the left.  The centre table contained a laptop, projector, two chairs, and a microphone for the presenters.  The table on the right featured QIA memorabilia (ie: water bottles, sweaters) and free TIIIBA documents for the public.  In front of this impressive display lay a large tarp with a dead seal & cut up seal meat.  Wow, QIA really went all out for this, I thought.  I later found out that QIA was touring all the northern communities that would be affected by TIIIBA & TINMCA.  They are: Clyde River, Pond Inlet, Arctic Bay, Resolute Bay, & Grise Fiord.

            

There was more country food at the back of the hall.  Pieces of raw arctic char lay on top of large RONA tarp.  There was also a line of tables with bowls of bread, bannock, fruits, cheese, sandwiches, and macaroni.

            

Levi Barnabas starts the meeting.

The meeting began at 6:15pm.  Local QIA representative, Levi Barnabas, introduced himself and the visiting QIA members.  An elder officially opened the meeting with a prayer.  The audience was shown a bilingual slideshow – (Inuktitut & English) - that explained TIIIBA, TINMCA, and what has been done up until now.  I was able to grab a free printed copy of the slideshow and follow along.  We also watched a short QIA-produced video that was shot in Arctic Bay.  I recognized many locals in the video.

            

Still frame of the QIA video that focused on Arctic Bay.
Pictured here are Arctic Bay's Roland Taqtu & Mishak Allurut.

Five men who were featured in the video posed in front of the large cake before the feast began.  They are Rangers and members of the Hunters & Trappers Organization (HTO).  They wore blue QIA hats.

            

Elders enjoying seal.

Everyone dove into the country food on the floor, armed with plastic bags.  The rule is “first come, first served.”  It’s the same for food on tables, but you have to line up.  I took two pieces of char and placed them in a plastic bag.  I then continued taking photographs.  Elders cut up the seal at the front of the hall and enjoyed fresh, raw seal meat.  I sat down when I was satisfied with the photographs I took.  I decided to eat some char.  I cut off pieces using my ulu (knife).  I saved the rest for a later time.

            

I left as names were being drawn for door prizes.  I declined to participate because I already have enough stuff at my place.  I hope the agreement is ratified by both parties and TINMCA becomes a reality. 

QIA mascot . . . I think.

HTO held its own community feast on November 26.  There was no meeting at this feast; just an organization sharing an abundance of country & southern foods with the people of Arctic Bay.  I think most of it was ordered, but some was caught by the HTO.  Events like these are always welcome, given the serious food insecurity problem that’s crippling the territory.  (The majority of Nunavut households are food insecure because of very high food prices.)  The menu consisted of: char, caribou, walrus, seal, lobster, bannock, vegetables, and fruits.  The country food lay in the middle of hall on a very large tarp.

            

Celery & lobsters.

An elder blessed the food and the feast began at 7:30pm.  Everyone charged into the centre with their plastic bags.  I was packing Ziplock freezer bags.  No one is rough; you just grab and go.  If someone beats you to it, too bad.  Just move on to the next best piece.  Otherwise, you’ll end up with nothing.  I filled two bags with char, caribou, and aged walrus.  You had to get the caribou meat at the front of the hall on stage.  In front of the stage were line of tables that had the bowls of vegetables, fruits, bannock, and lobster.  I took a paper plate and grabbed a lobster head, a piece of bannock, and some orange slices.  I consumed the bannock & oranges, but only ate small pieces of the country foods.  Raw walrus is an acquired taste.

            

Char, caribou, walrus, lobster, bannock,
& oranges.

I noticed several people glancing at me while I ate.  I think Inuit are always amused when they see a non-Inuk eating raw country food.  I just pretend I don’t notice.  Sometimes, people will come up and ask me if I like the country food to which I reply, “Yes.”  I know eating raw meat carries some risk, but I think the skill is necessary, especially in times of (arctic) survival.

            

I stayed a few more minutes before making my exit.  The week had just begun and tonight was a school night.  I had to be fully rested and ready to teach the following day.   

Fundraising & Remembrance Day 2018

The army cadets of 3045 Corps held a fundraising dance at the local community hall on Friday, November 2.  Community dances are regularly held every Friday and the Hamlet Office lets local clubs & organizations run those dances to fundraise money for trips and other things.  In our case, the corps fundraises money for custom clothing, snacks for field exercises, and a future trip somewhere down south.  Competition to host Friday night dances is surprisingly high.  The Hamlet also allows movie nights on Saturdays.

            

Games.

The dance was split into two parts: 14 & under for the first two hours, and 15 & over for the last two hours.  The music was provided by “DJ iPod(s)”.  The cadets ran the dance; I was there to supervise the cadets supervising the kids, and collect & count the money.  Our main sources of income would be ticket sales and selling snacks.  I brought earplugs in case the music got too loud.

            

Crawling game.

Imitating cadets.

Near the end of the first two hours, the music was stopped, and the cadets played several group games with the children.  I don’t know the name of the games or what exactly the rules are.  All I know & saw was the kids having fun and competing against each other.  At one point, the cadets showed the kids how to do basic drill.  Prizes were given out to the winners of each game.

            

Prizes being given out.

Cleaning up the gym.

Teenagers and adults occupied the hall for the later half of the dance.  I was glad I had earplugs, because the music got louder.  The biggest challenge for me was to stay awake.  I normally don’t stay up late on a Friday night because I have cadets the following morning & afternoon.  This time, however, there would only be cadets Saturday afternoon because we needed the morning to sleep.  Not much happened for the rest of the night.  When the music stopped, the cadets & I helped the community hall staff clean up.  We also counted all the money we collected and placed them in several plastic bags.  I took the money home and would turn it over to the corps accountant the next day.  We made a good profit.

            

The corps took over the community hall again on the morning of November 11, 2018, to hold a Remembrance Day ceremony.  This year was extra special because we would also be observing the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.  The program & preparation routines are already in place.  The only things that change are the people who present.  I had plenty of responsibilities to cover as the commanding officer.  I was the emcee, piano accompanist, and a DJ of sorts.  The cadets acted as the honour guard and show of support for the men & women who fought for freedom during times of conflict.  They cleaned their uniforms and practiced the drill movements well before the day to get everything right.  The hardest drill movement was standing at attention for six minutes. (More on this coming up). 

            

The parade began at 10:45am.  The cadet flag party entered first, followed by the honour guard and RCMP.  The audience remained standing for the opening prayer by Rev. Leah May.  I continued with the Welcome Address.  I kept of the first half of last year’s speech, but rewrote the second half, focusing on the 100^th anniversary on the First World War.  Everyone then stood up for the playing of O Canada.

I sat at the piano while two members of the public did a bible reading.  When they were done, I cracked my fingers and turned on the piano.  I checked to see if the volume was correct and then I began playing “Abide With Me”.  The audience sang along.  (I did this last year).  I would play the piano again near the end of the ceremony, for the hymn, “O God Our Help In Ages Past”.

Last Post, Minute of Silence, Piper’s Lament, and Reveille, all follow after the first hymn.  It is these four parts where the cadets and everyone in attendance are required to stand as a show of respect.  Only the Minute of Silence doesn’t contain instrumental music.  This whole part lasts six minutes because I timed it.  To make sure the cadets were fully prepared, we practiced standing at attention for six minutes, with music & silence.  They all made it through.

The Act of Remembrance was read in English, French, & Inuktitut.  Two more community members did a bible reading.  Lt (ret.) Frank May, also mayor of Arctic Bay, continued the ceremony with his Thoughts On Remembrance Day.  Three chosen cadets then came to podium to recite the famous Canadian poem, “In Flander’s Field”, written by Lt. Col. John McCrae.

The second half of the ceremony consisted of wreath laying, another hymn, the playing of God Save The Queen, a closing prayer, and final remarks.  The RCMP & cadets marched off to the applause of the audience.  The cadets & RCMP posed for a group photograph, and then joined the reception line.  Everything was done and packed up by 12:30pm. 

LEST WE FORGET.

The Rough Cut & Halloween 2018

In May of this year, my Grade 10 English students and I embarked on a video project in the hopes of making a short film about life in Arctic Bay.  We were inspired by the 2007 YouTube series Don’t Call Me Eskimo.  The three-part series was made in Arctic Bay by a local video club.  Principal photography lasted two weeks and we accumulated 46 minutes of raw footage.  Finally, after many months, I had a rough cut to show the students.  The cut ran for fifteen & a half minutes.  Music and sound effects would be added to the final cut.

            

When the project began, we thought our short film would take place all over the community.  However, we mostly filmed within the school and my classroom.  It soon became apparent that our short film would be about a high school teacher and his students dealing with everyday struggles at Inuujaq School.  Some students chose to play themselves while others used stage names.  I decided to use one of my old student-given nicknames from 2013 as my character’s name, which became the title of the film: Mr. Putugu’s Classroom.  “Putugu” is Inuktitut for “big toe”.  To be honest, my toes are not big, but I guess that one student assumed they were, based on my shoe size.

            

I assembled all the students involved in the film in my classroom a few days before Halloween.  I briefly explained that I was a showing a rough cut of the film and thanked them again for their participation.  I also suggested that they watch themselves as if those were different students on screen.  (I said this to combat embarrassment).  The lights were turned off and I pressed play.  There was silence, laughter, and focus from the students watching the film.  When the credits began to roll, the students gave me their approvals and were excited to see the final cut.  I promised to have it cut ready before Christmas. 

My classroom door decorated for Halloween.

Halloween is a festive time of the year in Arctic Bay.  You know this quite well if you’re a frequent visitor to my blog (Thank you!).  The school had the usual activities planned for the day: door decorating contest, costume contest, drum performance, and afternoon games.  The community also kept the same routines by announcing that trick-or-treating would be from 5-7pm, immediately followed by the community costume contest. 

            

Me wearing my Ghoul Warrior mask.

I decided to dress up as a Ghoul Warrior this year.  I ordered the costume from Spirit Halloween and it arrived on time.  Unfortunately, the quality wasn’t as good as I thought it would be.  The armour & cape felt flimsy and I could only see through one hole in the mask.  I had to use scissors to enlarge the hole on the left side.  I was glad I only had to wear it for one day.  (I don’t recommend buying this product).  I’ve been buying costumes from Spirit Halloween since 2013 and the best one so far is the Grim Reaper.

           

Everyone gathered in the gym in the afternoon for the assembly.  The place was alive with people dressed in a variety of costumes.  I did my best to see & breathe through the mask I was wearing.  Judging from the reactions I was somewhat seeing, I looked intimidating.

            

My drummers & I arrived early after the extended lunch to set up the drums in the gym.  I made it easier by having all the equipment stored in the cadet office above the gym.  I gave my drummers some final words of encouragement before we were called to perform.  We walked in a line and took positions behind our drums.  I signalled a teacher at the back to turn off the lights.  I bought specially made drum sticks that light up when you play.  Unfortunately, light up bass drum mallets don’t exist so my bass drummers had to use regular mallets.  I raised my sticks in the air, clicked them four times and our performance began.

            

This was the first time we were using light sticks.  It was a good choice because the audience loved the visual effects.  I was later told that many people recorded our performance.  Unfortunately, I was so focused on getting everything set up that I forgot to ask someone to record everything on my camera.  I don’t have any pictures or videos of the concert.  Sorry.  We played three cadences as a group and a few solos.  It was a little challenging to see in the dark but we managed to put on a great 6-minute show.

            

The assembly continued with the costume contest.  Each class walked around the gym twice, showing off their costumes before sitting down.  Several high school students wore my old costumes.  The judges were members of the local District Education Authority (DEA).  The winners received gift certificates to the local CO-OP.  The winning high school student used my Grim Reaper mask.  The class that won the door decorating contest received a pizza party at a later date.  School was dismissed early at 3pm. 

I gave out free candy while dressed in costume.  Parents drove their kids around town to collect candy because the weather was dark and cold.  In some communities, trick-or-treating has to be done inside because of roaming polar bears.  I still had plenty of candy left over even though I was handing out 4 pieces to each person.  I changed out of my costume and walked down to the community hall for the annual Ugliest Costume Contest.

Contestants came dressed in whatever they could find in their houses.  Numbers were taped to their costumes and were instructed to sit in front of the stage.  It’s always fascinating to see the wild combinations that people come up with.  The contest got under way once the hall was packed with spectators.

The first group was the 12 & under contestants.  They walked around the hall while music played on loudspeakers.  A few kids didn’t wear masks.  It was difficult trying to guess the identities of the kids wearing masks.  The 13 & over group was next.  All the older contestants were wearing masks of some kind. (Part of the contest is to not to reveal your identity until the very end).  They walked around in a circle twice, except for the contestant who was inside a suitcase.  They had to be pushed around on a cart.

Cash prizes were given out for third, second, and first places.  Each winner was called up to the front by their number, shook hands with the judges, and then revealed their identity to the audience.  I was only able to correctly guess who was the person in the suitcase.  He was a former student of mine.