Anna Desgagnes. September 5, 2015 |
The first week of September was a busy time for everyone
at Inuujaq School. It was the fourth
week of the academic year, and the warm days of summer were well behind
us. The routines were now in place and the
teachers were immersed in the instruction of their students. I also had recess duty that week. My area of supervision was the high school
section. My tasks included: preventing
physical confrontations, making sure the students finished their cigarettes
before going back inside, and herding the students inside when the bell
rang. I'm happy to report that no fights
took place that week.
My Grade 10 Social Studies students were deep in their
study of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement (NLCA). The module is organized into three time
periods: traditional Inuit life before European contact, the transitional era
(1950s - 1970s), and the modern era (1980s onwards). (The NLCA negotiations took place between the
1970s & early 1990s). By the end of
the first week, my students had reviewed what life was like for the Inuit out
on the land, and their treatment by the Europeans during the first half of the
20th century. In short, the treatment
was not very good. I was glad that the
new textbooks I ordered included similar information on the topic and I included
them in my lessons. My students learned
new words such as marginalization, empowerment, disempowerment, assimilation,
and hierarchy.
My Grade 11 Social Studies students were finished with
their study of the Industrial Revolution in Britain and were now looking at
European imperialism all over the world.
A new word they learned was Eurocentrism. Naturally, the new textbooks I ordered also
included interesting content on this topic and I included it in my lessons. The new content focused on European imperialist
policies in North America. My students
were particularly interested in slavery in America. They were surprised to learn that the Hudson Bay Company used to own much of the land north of the 49th parallel (aka
Rupert's Land) before selling it to the Dominion of Canada for £300,000 in
1869. That would be around £29,000,000
today.
My drummers are improving their handling of the actual
drums and enjoy playing the required rhythms.
I'm still working on getting them to control their volume. Beginner drummers always think that playing
louder makes them better drummers but that's not the case. They were very excited when I handed out
their first performance piece for the Halloween concert in October. The challenge for the next several weeks is
to get them playing more complicated rhythms as a team.
The Labour Day Weekend was the first three-day weekend of
the school year. For everyone down
south, it was the last weekend before the beginning of school. Everyone here had made plans of some kind to
make the most of the extra day off school.
Anna Desgagnes |
Tugboat & barge. |
The long weekend began with the arrival of the second
sealift vessel, the Anna Degagnés. The
large ship, owned by Transport Desgagnés Inc., is a "multipurpose vessel
equipped with crane[s] capable of lifting up to 125 tons." It's been delivering much needed supplies to
Arctic Bay for many years. The ship was
anchored in the bay on the morning of Saturday, September 5th and the crew was
using a tugboat & barge to bring supplies ashore. A large portion of the supplies were building
materials needed for the new health centre.
The construction company had also ordered several large vehicles for the
project, such as a crane, a loader, and dump trucks. They even brought up a small school bus to
ferry the workers to and from the construction site. The Anna Degagnés also brought up food
supplies ordered by the local Co-op store.
The staff would be busy for the next several days.
The construction crane at the new health centre location
was fully extended on Saturday as I walked towards the town centre. In a way, the crane was now the tallest "structure"
in town. I took several pictures of the
site before I continued walking to the Uquutaq Centre (Anglican church). The staff & cadets of 3045 Army Cadet
Corps were going to be cleaning up the shoreline behind the airport as part of
their community service. We would be
meeting at the church first for breakfast, followed by a briefing. The wind was strong that day and as I neared
the church, I wondered whether the event might get cancelled.
Uquutaq Centre (Anglican Church) |
Breakfast was prepared by a parent volunteer. He prepared delicious egg muffins with ham. The cadets ate around a table while the adult
staff discussed the weather. In the end,
we decided to postpone the clean up until the following Saturday because of strong
wind. The forecast called for winds of
up to 40km/h at the airport. At least
everyone got a free breakfast.
Gestetner 420 |
Lt. May showed me a vintage Gestener 420 duplicating machine
that the church still had in its possession.
The device is named after Hungarian inventor David Gestetner. The church used the device to mass print
paper copies of hymns and newsletters in Inuktitut. The machine predates the modern
photocopier. Unfortunately, the device
was no longer workable.
King George V Mountain (KGVM) |
I joined two teachers on an afternoon hike up King George
V Mountain (KGVM). The last time I
visited the peak was in March. My two
coworkers were Jean-Francois (JF) and Greg.
JF brought along his puppy for the hike.
He had already hiked the mountain several weeks before. This would be Greg's first time ascending the
mountain. I brought my 12-guage shotgun
with me because we were told that a polar bear had been spotted near the
mountain a few days before. I was
packing 15 slugs and 5 bear banger shells.
We almost decided not to go through with the hike because of the strong
winds and overcast clouds. However, we went
anyway, believing that the weather would clear up by the time we reached the
summit.
JF & I walking towards KGVM. Picture taken by Greg. |
Victor Bay. |
We left the borrowed SUV near the community's waste
disposal facility (aka garbage dump) and began our trek up the mountain. We followed the small valley on the left side
of KGVM. This valley turns into a skidoo
trail during the winter months. During
the summer months, the ground is wet because of snowmelt. Streams are formed and green vegetation, like
moss & grass, grow. We reached the
top of the crown at around 2:30pm. We
could see Arctic Bay, Victor Bay, and the Sewage Lagoon. I photographed Victor Bay, making sure I got
the iceberg and cabins on camera.
Cabins and an iceberg at Victor Bay. |
Me standing next to the hoodoo. Picture taken by JF. |
I gave my camera to JF so that he could take pictures of
me standing next to a tall sandstone rock hoodoo I previously visited in 2013. I crossed a narrow rocky ledge and
climbed up to the hoodoo. JF's puppy
followed me and did the same without any difficulty. Greg also took several pictures with his
expensive Nikon camera.
We continued our hike by walking over to the centre of
KGVM to get a better view of Arctic Bay.
One of the main reasons I wanted to do the hike was to take a grand
landscape picture of the community with the Anna Desgagnés in the frame. As I've previously mentioned, the KGVM summit
is a rocky plateau. You can build an
entire town on top of the mountain but you would have to spend a lot of time
& money removing all the loose rocks.
September 5, 2015 |
The Anna Desgagnes anchored in Arctic Bay. September 5, 2015. |
There was still overcast clouds over Arctic Bay, but
there was enough sunlight to take good pictures. I was surprised by how far out in the bay the
Anna Desgagnés was anchored. It looked
much closer when I was looking from the shoreline. We celebrated our ascent with a batch of
cookies that JF had baked and brought along.
We slowly walked down to the ledge where a large &
tall inukshuk stood. I explained to JF
& Greg that this was the spot where I did my extreme ironing in April 2014. We took pictures of JF's puppy
sitting on top of the inukshuk. Several
minutes later, a flock of ravens that had been playing in the sky flew down to get
a closer look at the puppy. They hovered
pretty close but chose not to land on the ledge. The puppy looked bemused. I filmed a short clip of the moment.
Arctic cotton |
We headed back the way we came after staying at the
summit for around 45 minutes. The
descent was easier on our legs & muscles.
On our way down, we photographed the moss in the valley and a small
collection of arctic cotton plants. The
last photo I took was of a Christmas Tree planted next to the road to the
Sewage Lagoon.
JF & Greg |
Overall, the hike up KGVM was a success and Greg was glad
that he could now say that he had scaled the mountain. I was grateful for the weather not turning,
otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get a picture of the sealift
vessel. And we were all thankful that we
didn't meet a polar bear along the way.
Planted Christmas Tree |
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