10 Years In Arctic Bay

Wow.  Has it really been that long?  Ten years.  Time really does fly fast.  My original plan was to live & teach in Arctic Bay for only a few years, but things changed.  Former coworkers joked that I had a 10-year plan in the community and I always shrugged it off, saying that was never the case.  Well, I guess they were right . . . in a way.

I still remember when I first arrived in Canada’s third most northern permanent community at the end of January 2013.  I had just finished my one-year term contract teaching music & English at Inuksuk High School in Iqaluit.  Not wanting to return to Ontario, I searched for teaching positions in other Nunavut communities and I applied for a social studies position at Inuujaq School.  The interview was a success and I was offered the job.  I accepted.

I flew to the top of Baffin Island in the middle of dark season.  The First Air turboprop plane banked in the pitch-black darkness and I caught a glimpse of a long rectangle of lights in the distance.  It was the runway.  The plane landed safely and I caught a taxi ride into town.  I was taken to the principal’s residence and he handed me the key to my residence.  The taxi driver dropped me off with my suitcases & carry-on bags.  The rest of my stuff would arrive at a later date.  The next phase of my teaching career had begun.

It took some time to settle in and make a name for myself at school and in the community.  There were good days, bad days, and mediocre days.  I got involved with the local army cadet corps, attended many local events, began to intensely learn to understand Inuktitut, immerse myself in Inuit culture, travel out on the land, and deal with the high cost of living.  Unfortunately, I’m still not fluent in Inuktitut, but I’ve gotten better at understanding what is being said.  I still have to respond in English most of the time, but I throw in an Inuktitut word here and there.  This improved understanding has led to a severe decrease in student gossip in my classroom.  If I plan to stay much longer, I have until the year 2040 to become fluent in Inuktitut because that’s the deadline the Nunavut Government has set for all teachers.

I have taught many students and worked with many teachers, local & southern.  (Southern means non-Inuit teachers from out of town).  I see the high turnaround of southern teachers you read about in the newspapers.  I’m now the most senior southerner on staff since 2021.  I never thought I’d reach that position.  I assist new hires with going about teaching students and how things work at the school.

People ask me how much longer I intend to stay in Arctic Bay and to be honest, I haven’t decided.  The closer I got to the 10-year mark, the more I thought it would be the end.  But now that it’s here, I don’t want to leave.  I like the community and feel I haven’t done enough.  Many students have already come through my classroom, but there are still many more.  I now joke that I may stay here until I retire.  That would be something.  The strange thing is, thinking about it doesn’t scare me.

Staff who wish to resign/retire are required to submit their intent to resign/retire at least “60 calendar days before the last day of the Academic Year.”  When that day arrives, I don’t have the urge to do that, or look for a teaching job in another community.  Education leave is starting to look appealing, but I don’t think I’ll go for it right away. 

For those of you who have been reading this blog since Day 1, thank you for following and support!  For those of you joining for the first time, feel free to catch up on 10 years of Arctic Bay history by reading my previous blog posts, starting from 2013.  Since I’ve documented so much, I wonder if Nunavut Archives and/or Library and Archives Canada will request to preserve my written posts, pictures, and videos I’ve taken in and around the community?  That would be quite an honour!

As long as Google keeps Blogger alive on the internet, I’ll keep writing about my time living & teaching in Arctic Bay.  The community is still growing and changing and there’s always something interesting to write about.