And so end the Chronicles of Nunavut

Bear with me people, this last entry of the Chronicles of Nunavut is rather introspective, a bit melodramatic, and is quite long. What I’ll do to help out my busy friends and family is highlight points of interest.


So here I am, sitting in the Winnipeg airport, drinking my Tim Hortons coffee and eating my Tim Hortons muffin, (huzzah, the return of excessively available mass produced fast food!), suddenly feeling very “big city”.

As I sit here, waiting for a delayed flight to Calgary, where I will wait a few more hours for my flight to Abbotsford, I can’t help but notice the stark differences between Nunavut and the rest of Canada more sharply than ever (and I’m only in the Winnipeg airport, not quite downtown Toronto or Vancouver…).

As we were touching down in Winnipeg, this strangling sense of claustrophobia started to set in. I was literally nearly nauseous; I couldn’t look out the window. I’m only being slightly dramatic. Seriously though, so many houses, so many buildings, so many roads—not at all what I have become accustomed to.

Perhaps it’s the initial culture shock of returning to this world, but it’s quite stifling. People everywhere, everyone rushing, hustling and bustling, and such. To be fair, I’m in an airport—not exactly a stress-free environment. Nevertheless, it’s bizarre how quickly it comes back, that sense of anxiety, anticipation, you know the one. I remember when I first arrived in Rankin, I often had to remind myself to be patient with the slower, more relaxed pace (“Rankin time” funnily enough resembles “Ecuadorian time”, not to mention “Laos time” and other similar locales). Throughout my time there, I came to understand what that slower pace really stood for: real conversations, relationships, connections, and genuine friendships. Unlike some of my other travels, I was really able to not only adjust to the lifestyle, but for once truly embrace it. I cherished the nearly daily exchanges I had with the butcher, the produce guy, the different cashiers at the Northern and Co-op, who I would see working other jobs all over town, the cooks at the Sugar Rush, my neighbours and of course my colleagues.

Let’s be real—there really isn’t a lot to do in the North if you don’t have great relationships. I was fortunate enough to have met some extremely amazing people and develop some relationships that I will cherish always. Of course I had my moments where I felt a bit homesick or lonely (well, really just one—being the sole Canucks fan on the day of the Stanley Cup Finals was a bit depressing). Again, unlike anywhere else I’ve ever been, I had the time to develop these fantastic relationships—with people that I will in all likelihood never see again. When anyone heard I was leaving, there first question was “when are you coming back?”

Rankin isn’t really a place that you “pop back to”, and truthfully, there really isn’t anything that would see me return there in the near future. I was contemplating this again this morning, while in line to buy some char jerky and say goodbye to my favourite cashier, and feeling a bit low. When I reached in my wallet to pay, I found a few things in there that I hadn’t seen in months. The first was a decrepit note written from some of my law buddies containing a list of books that I was supposed to try to get through this summer (I made it through two of them…). The next was the picture of my niece Hayley bawling on Santa’s lap. I had one of those rare moments of clarity then, like, I know why I am going home. Life has been great here, but no matter where I go, when I go, for how long I go, home is waiting for me, and I want to be there.

I will miss so much about Rankin. I will miss the two guys in the red truck that waved to me every morning at 658 am as I ran by the north side of Williamson Lake and they drive to their job at the middle school. I will miss the way the air smelled when the light arctic breeze brought the ocean right into my office, the way it smelled right before it was about to rain, the way the air smelled after it rained, really just the air altogether. I will miss seeing entire families riding around on one Honda, small children waving furiously while grinning ear to ear as they zoom by. I will miss the free time that I had to journal and think. I will miss walking down the street and being more likely to know or at least recognize someone than not. I will miss the beautiful Inuktitut language, both hearing it and seeing it. I will miss the GAME! Never before have I eaten so well, with all the delicious char, trout, and caribou available! I will miss the novelty of small town life, how every day taught me something new about myself. I will miss the celebrations, the square dances, the parties, the singing. I will miss the radio station that cut into songs to remind a certain individual to bring home milk after work. I will miss the music. I will miss the reverence for Elders and traditional practises. I will miss the exciting challenges my work position brought every day. I will miss all the great friends I made.

The last few weeks of my time in Rankin brought some amazing developments, including witnessing the caribou migrations right along the outskirts of the hamlet when they haven’t come through in the past five years (terrible pictures to be added at some point), hikes to Thule archaeological sites, and the general beauty of the arctic tundra, not to mention my amazing circuit court experiences.

To be continued/edited when i'm actually home I suppose.

And so end the Chronicles of Nunavut. For now.

Blog with a link to a blog

Hey everyone,

So it's Friday, nearly the end of the day, and if you can believe it I'm wearing shorts and a Tee-shirt in the office. It is 27-- are you freaking kidding me? Anyways, it's lovely, and I'm excited for the day to end. I have a ton of work ahead of me on the weekend, but I fully intend to enjoy the heat this evening.

Anyways, I'm really just posting to let you know that I "guest blogged" for the Canadian Lawyers Abroad site. There are a few pics there and a bit more about some of the things I've been up to.

http://canadianlawyersabroad.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/reflections-from-rankin-inlet/.

Check it out if you so desire :)

I can hardly believe that I'll be blowing this popsicle stand in 2 weeks, it really has flown by! Working circuit court this past week has been an enlightening experience to say the least. I'm sure I'll have more to say about it at some point, but for now, I best get back to work! Hope all is well out west and I'll be seeing you all soon!

HAPPY NUNAVUT DAY!!!

Happy Nunavut Day!

So July 9th is likely the most celebrated event in the summer, if not the year, here in Nunavut. The celebration marks the date when two major acts were passed by parliament allowing Nunavut to separate from the Northwest Territories over ten years ago. It's kind of a big deal.

(The best part-- it's only a week away from Canada Day-- ie 2 back-to-back long weekends! WOOT!)

The Nunavummiut celebrate this day with a vast array of family favourite events-- sail boat races across the tiny in-town lake, egg-races, egg tosses, bannock making, three-legged races, face painting, helium balloons, and a whole lot of food!!!!!
It was a day packed with activities from top to bottom, and I was able to experience my first square dance. Check out a couple of pics below to see what all the fuss was about...


Here is a pic of an elder making bannock on the beach of Williamson Lake. There were several different stations, and let me tell you, they all made DELICIOUS bannock (naturally I had to test them all for comparative purposes).

Though many of the elders are uni-lingual, bannock is pretty much its own universal language.






Delicious and HUGE cake to celebrate the day. (For context, this cake took up an entire large folding table. It made me think of Cake Boss, how on earth did they make that thing so large???) Also I love that it's a bilingual cake!











The band was playing and the music was great! The music up here has a very down-home, old country sound (it reminds me of my favourite soundtrack of all time-- Oh Brother Where Art Thou). Johnny Cash is a favourite of many here. This style blended with the Inuktitut sounds is really just so beautiful and relaxing. I have some video of them playing, as well as some of the other bands that played (there were like 5 different bands).








Most of the festivities took place outside of the middle school. There was sooooo much food and free goods (I gots me a hat and a sweatshirt, woot!) There was probably a turn out of about 1800 they guessed (in a hamlet of 2400, where over half of the population heads out on land for summer). So not bad.





And below, a taste of the FUN of square dancing. It's not quite like any style I've seen before, but man was it FUN!!! It was just amazing, everyone already knew all the moves, when the music started, they all just started dancing. Also, the hilarious thing is that the dance didn't start until 1030 at night, and didn't really get going until about midnight-- not at all what you expect from a town where nothing is open past 8pm.

Okay so the video didn't load. And I'm heading out. Maybe I'll try to post it later. But believe me, it was amazing.

Furrrrrrrrrr

Well I would love to post some pictures from the great National Aboriginal Day celebration last week, but unfortunately every picture takes a lifetime to upload, and I gave up after these two. Thus, I have decided to write a little bit about fur! (and animals I guess, like the things that the fur comes from...)

That time of year has just passed! Hunters have been having a gay old time, as prime seal hunting season brought in an onslaught of delicious seal meat, and furs are EVERYWHERE! I did have the opportunity to sample some raw seal, and I would like to say it tasted like... I'm not going to lie, I'm going to say sashimi, because that's what I kept telling myself it was to help myself eat it, but it probably didn't really taste like that... Either way, once in a lifetime, you have to do it I suppose. How else could I have the stereotypically Northern experience?

Nearly every home has some sort of fur or skin hanging off the front porch, drying out. Less so now than a few weeks ago, as a lot of the furs have been put to good use-- locals have been coming around selling beautiful kamiks (boots) and mitts for the past few weeks.

There are even a few of these... that's right, this is a polar bear fur. A small one, but still enough to make me hustle by this house on my way home from work (that's right, I'm a bit afraid of a polar bear fur... but not nearly as afraid as I am of the different humungous dead stuffed animals they have in some of the different buildings here, why are the eyes always so creepy??? nightmares!!!)


So luckily this is the closest I have been to a polar bear since I've been here (that I know of... don don don). But seriously, it is. They do come through here, and it may have been possible to see one in May before all the snow melted, but I didn't. Phew.

Not every fur is used.

I don't know why I took this picture; I have no idea why I put it in my blog. I have so many other pictures to put up. Maybe it's to show the excess of fur available here (?)

I also love that you can buy pelts at the co-op for soooo cheap. I'm thinking about buying a few rabbit pelts (they're $10 each) just for kicks. Actually I was thinking about buying some of the mitts that the locals sell, but after discussing it with a lawyer who used to live in Vancouver, we both agreed that as beautifully crafted as they are, they would certainly be taboo down south, particularly in Vancity, home of the hippie. Also they would be way too warm and you can't exactly where gloves like that snowboarding and whatnot...

The Inuit people are historically a nomadic people--as such, the diaspora is soon to occur. Many Inuit families will head out "on land" (away from the water) for the rest of summer, hunting caribou, fishing for char and generally just living away from town. Sounds neat, but this already slow hamlet is soon to become... an even slower hamlet.

Okay well I'm excited for Canada Day this weekend, there's a big parade and celebration, and then I'm heading to the nearby national park for some hiking and fishing. I'll take this opportunity to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA, and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY GRANNY AND GRANDPA! (while I'm doing this, I have to say HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY RAE, and WELCOME BABY KYLIE!!! so much going on at home!)

Have a great week everyone and I'll check in again soon!

Tootoo's in town

So I think we all knew this was going to happen. Second blog fail in just over a month, sorry for the long wait. Well I'm back, with a couple of pictures, I have a ton more to put up but the internet here is not great and it takes FOREVER to upload pictures. So here are two, in honour of Jordin Tootoo (teehee).

So Jordin Tootoo is in town, and it's kind of a big deal. (FYI he's the ONLY famous person to ever come out of Rankin Inlet, and therefore is their claim to fame). He's been here for a couple weeks now and people are still talking about it. Everyone seems to have a take on the guy, and to put it mildly the reactions are pretty polarized; from hometown hero to gangster-womanizer, everyone has a story to tell about him. (Like seriously, when I mentioned that it might be neat to meet him, my boss called me into her office and had a 45 minute chat with me-- she warned me to avoid him at all costs, and be afraid because he's a "player" that is territorial over Rankin's "white girls" -- the whole time she was talking, the bed intruder song was playing in my head, "hide ya kids, hide ya wife", ahahahahaha ridiculous. Of course, she was overreacting; when I told some of the local girls about the chat, they lost it, they thought the response was hilarious, and though not unfounded, not something to lose sleep over).

Naturally, this is the first thing I saw when I got off the plane 6 weeks ago (picture more snow though, obviously) and it's classically Rankin-- a picture of Tootoo surrounded by caribou antlers. If it was lined with furs, it would be perfect. (Note: behind the picture is one of many snowmobile summer resting place, there are about 20 machines sitting there, waiting for snow to return).

(To my non-hockey fan friends: So I know what some of you are thinking-- who is this guy, who cares etc-- he dated Kelli Pickler, the American Idol chick-- and she came up here with him one summer for a couple of weeks. Apparently she is as... blonde... as she seems on TV. Sorry, I just seriously cannot picture her here...)

So after all this, I have not met him yet! The "most exciting thing" to happen to the Hamlet all year and I still don't even know what the big deal is. He's been out on land hunting. Well maybe I'll get my chance tomorrow, as it is National Aboriginal Day, and there's a big celebration planned-- I'm stoked for that! It's going to be neat!

Also, this is the Sugar Rush, the only restaurant in town (with the exception of the restaurant in the hotel). It has wifi! (and is open from 8am-630pm. And I work from 830-5. So yeah, I don't get there too often.) Also, it is owned by Jordin Tootoo's aunt, coincidentally; she's also a member of our Legal Services Board, so small world! Even smaller world, Tootoo's parents are directly my neighbours, like actually right next door. So though I haven't seen him, I bet Tootoo is less than 100 yards away, even as I'm typing this. (I'm trying to be impressed by this, but even I'm not, so I'm sure you aren't. So sorry for even mentioning it really... oh well, it's already written, guess there's nothing I can do about that...)

Okay well I didn't really say much in this entry (and yet it is still freaking long). I'll try to have a better post soon.

(Also, sidenote: I had my first bout of homesickness last week when the Canucks had a chance for the cup, so Wednesday was rough-- until the aftermath. Now I'm pretty relieved to have had some distance. If nothing else, perhaps it softens the blow. I hope you were all safe!)

The Gulls Arrive

This post shows a few pics that I randomly selected out of the couple hundred I've already taken.
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ALSO SIDE NOTE-- thank you to those of you who have expressed concern about my alcohol intake, some going as far as trying to find ways to send liquor to me (thanks Patrick). FYI- turns out this would be illegal, as I need a license to be in posession of alcohol. The dry-spell continues...
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Hello there!!!

So over the past week or so I hitched a ride on a dog-sled, watched some ice-fishing in action and finally got in my first beach run! (Yet I have no pictures of these awesome events...)

Yesterday was the first time that I was actually able to smell salt water at the beach, so the ice is melting :D

Anways, here are a few pics (that are out of order...) I have a few more that I would like to put up, but I have neither the patience nor... the patience.

So you can tell spring is nearly here, as the quads are emerging from below the snow...
(also, here, they call them "hondas" or "machines" when I say "quad" or "ATV", people just look at me blankly...)


















Below are a couple pics from last weekend, the first is a pic from the outside of town. A lot of that snow is gone now, just one week later. Also, the other is supposed to be a picture of one of the first gulls to make it up here this season, which has major historical and cultural significance, as the first gull means the coming of spring! (there are now tons of gulls, I went to the dump yesterday and now I know where they all hang out... haha)


























When I was still staying at the other apartment, there was a fire emergency. So naturally the whole department arrived (it's two guys with an axe. that's it.)

















We went on a beautiful walk out on the Hudson Bay. This is the "ice road"-- this road is more dependable and durable than any of the roads in town.

















This is the barge that didn't make it out in time in the fall. When the ice finally starts to break, it will head south will all the goods it was meant to bring there many months ago...

So sorry that these weren't the best photos and that there weren't too many, and that they were all from different days... but it take soooo long to upload them... I'll try to do a better job of choosing pics next time!

Anyways, hope all is well, and for my law peeps, I'll post later about my "legal experience" in the last few weeks later on this week, check back if you're interested.

Wait, you’ve NEVER given birth? Never? How old are you? (May 23rd, 2011)

Oh the joys of cross-cultural interactions. Today’s topic: the differences in growing up Inuit in Nunavut and growing up with "western" conceptions of morality and norms.

Today I had the pleasure of meeting two Inuk women who came to help Luis clean up part of his house. Funny situation—he told me he was trying to give them a bit of work because he thought they needed money, while they told me they thought they were helping him out because he was unable to clean himself. Ha. Anyways, while they were over I had some very interesting revelations: 1) Many traditional cultural practises are alive and well here in Nunavut, though they tend to vary from community to community. 2) My inadvertently imperialistic attitude may cause me to assume that they know how different life is in the south, when in fact they don’t always. 3) I know that I “know” things are different here, but I need to stop being so surprised when they are.

I wish I could tell you the name of this woman, but it was one of those things where you are both introduced and you don’t really quite catch their name, but you keep going anyways, and then you end up talking for hours, but by then it’s too late to ask their name again… Anyways, her story may be an anomaly, but it is certainly interesting, so I thought I’d share it (and dibs on movie rights to it).

So this woman (who I will arbitrarily call Shepa, the name of another Inuk woman I know), explained to me how she came to be in Rankin Inlet. Her mother had grown up in a tiny community outside of the hamlet of Cambridge Bay (pop 1500). She had grown up with her cousin, but they were really more like sisters. Then, the cousins moved to different cities and started families. Shepa’s mom moved back to her home community when she was born, and that is where she grew up. Then, she met her future partner at her great aunt’s funeral (his grandmother’s funeral…). That’s right—it was her mom’s cousin’s son. They were second cousins, but didn’t realize it for some time. When his parents and her mom finally realized what was going on, it was too late; they were in love—and Shepa was pregnant. She was 15 at the time.

Her common-law’s (as she calls him) parents desperately tried to arrange a marriage for her to a different gentleman (one that was not a blood relative), which is a common practise where she is from (arranged marriages, that is). They were nearly successful—it was 2 days before the wedding when her mother finally let her get out of it. She currently lives in social housing in Rankin Inlet with her common-law, his parents, and “her” daughter.

Quotations are needed here, because the two year old child is not technically her child. She didn’t want to keep the baby (she was, after all, fifteen when she had her), but nevertheless tradition in her community dictates the placement of the first born child—with the grandparents. Therefore, her daughter was “custom-adopted” by her common-law’s parents. Shepa is very fortunate to still be a part of her daughter’s life, as she currently lives with them. Her daughter, however, will grow up with her grandparents being her real parents. Ironically, her grandparents are pretty much the age that many people start having children in my own experience (30-ish). (Shepa told me that she knows a 26 year old grandmother. Just bizarre.)

One of the most interesting turns in the conversation was when we were discussing her actual child birth. She was describing her labour pains to me, and as she did so, her co-worker looked at me in astonishment and said, “wait, you’ve NEVER given birth? Never? How old are you?”

Initial response: Geesh. I’m 24, I don’t need the baby thing thrown at me, I’m pursuing a career, I’m independent, I have a lot on my plate. Etc. And whatnot. So there. (and other indignant thoughts)

But that really wasn’t what it was about. Here it is completely normalized that women have children extremely young. They had never met an Inuk woman that had not given birth at least once before 19 (whether that is a fair statistic, I don’t know, this is just from their experiences). Both of these women have given birth, but neither has kept their children due to both custom adoption practises and financial constraints.

I’m sure in their minds, they were trying to come to terms with how I could be my age without ever having experienced the “joys” of childbirth. I think they saw me as quite old. Which I resent. (But I am trying to understand it)

This post is really just to signify the complexities of inter-cultural exchanges, particularly in a place with such a history of imperialism and with the marked tangibility of a colonial past evident in every interaction, every policy development, every political decision. I’m no stranger to inter-cultural encounters, what with my past travels and whatnot, but I’ve always attempted to adopt a cultural-relativist stance. This time, I’m in Canada. For the first time, I’m seeing the difficulties inherent in fitting unique cultural practises within the current Canadian legal system.
Quite frankly, some of the things I’m encountering here are quite mind-boggling, and from a legal perspective, it can be extremely difficult to deal with (ie in the case of custom-adoptions, how does the legal system navigate the balance between individual rights and cultural traditions while remaining aware of the best interest of the child?) In short—it’s not an easy process. More to come…

(Side-note- Shepa's favourite pastime: NARWALE HUNTING! legitimately. She actually speared one herself. I thought they were just majestic, mythical creatures. Here I thought they didn't even exist, and she's literally killed one with nearly her bare hands. Man alive, what a different world I am in.)