Nain, Nunatsiavut

I realize that a lot of my posts about the north are actually about the traveling involved.

With northern travel, carefully laid out plans often change at the last minute. In the case of my first trip to Nain in the Nunatsiavut region, due to a number of delays due to fog and mechanical issues, my entire itinerary (and plans to get a full night's sleep) changed and I ended up flying Ottawa to Montreal to St John's overnight to Goose Bay, where I arrived five minutes before my next plane, a chartered flight, was scheduled to depart.

View of the Nunatsiavut region from the plane

But it's all part of the adventure. If you can’t learn to adapt to your situation and roll with it, you won’t last long.  It was as we flew over the vast landscape of Labrador that I had begun to feel really excited. I had never been to the Nunatsiavut region of Canada before, and I was curious to know what it would look like.

excited traveller 

Nain airport

We landed in Nain on a chartered flight in a small airplane, landing on a smallair strip by a small airport.

In the past, this was what I knew about Labrador:
• The classic post-apocalyptic science fiction novel the Chrysalids was based in Labrador.
• I once read a novel based in Nunatsiavut written by an author who had clearly never been to Nunatsiavut.

Nain is the administrative capital of the Nunatsiavut region. With a population of about 1400 people, it's the northernmost permanent settlement in Labrador, as well as one of the oldest permanent Inuit settlements in Canada, established by Moravian priests in the 1770s. This is in contrast to, say, Cambridge Bay which only really became a permanent settlement in the 1960s.

One of the most striking sights for me was all of the trees. In many ways, Nain very much resembled the other northern communities I had seen in Nunavut, with similar houses in painted bright colour with skidoos parked in the front, folks whizzing by on ATVs, small Inuit kids scurrying around in their hoodies playing with the dogs, and the brisk crisp air (it had snowed earlier that week). And yet, unlike the communities of Nunavut, the community was surrounded by trees, expansive canopies of evergreen trees, dotted with yellowish trees that a local told me that this is what juniper trees looked like at this time of the year.

Out on the street, I bought a few carvings from a local artist, who with the help of his apprentice carved inukshuks and uluks (in Nunatsiavut they refer to an ulu as an uluk) out of soapstone by hand.  I chatted with him about his artwork, which he was very proud of.

Maybe this was the exhaustion from a long day, but I felt filed with an immense sense of gratitude at this wonderful opportunity I had to explore such remote and interesting places in Canada, places that even Newfoundlanders rarely had the chance to visit. And that in the end is what makes all the flight changes, delays, turbulence, mechanical problems, lack of sleep and general uncertainty of northern travel worth it.

sleepy traveller

In general, I was awe-struck by just how generous and hospitable everyone in the community was to their visitors. I got to eat home-cooked ptarmigan soup and bannock and meet brilliant people.  I hope my travels bring me back to the Nunatsiavut region again soon.

[original trip in October 2017]

return to Iqaluit

When we first arrived in Iqaluit, we had a five-hour layover before we had to get back on the plane to Yellowknife via Rankin Inlet. The new airport hadn't opened yet and the old one was still a short walk to downtown, so we decided to take the opportunity to do a little walking tour of town.

sightseeing

I was in Iqaluit first on a layover, and then back again a few days later for work. What really clinched Iqaluit as a city for me, was not the Francophone Centre or the mosque, but the opening of the brand new Aquatic Centre. It was like a spaceship that had landed in a Western movie. It's huge, ultra-modern, and even has a water slide! I went for the really nice gym, and I went pretty much every day.

I also got to play a few games with the local ultimate frisbee scene at Iqaluit's Glorious League of Ultimate (I.G.L.U.). My favourite Arctic frisbee team will always be Cambridge Bay's, but the Iqaluit players are a fun group of folks and I'd love to play with them again.

Gloria the tourist (I was actually visiting the Law Society)

I also took my opportunity there to eat Arctic char whenever I could.

Eggs benedict with Arctic char

but also lots of Chinese food at the Navigator Inn, of course

My colleague took me for a drive around town, because she's sweet like that. I got to ride around in her truck with her adorable kids. This was a treat, not just because I got to hang out with her kids, but because, as I mentioned, you can see a lot more of Iqaluit with a vehicle, including some of the breathtaking rocky and mountainous tundra landscape.

 hanging out at Apex Beach

  

the old Hudson's Bay Company store in Apex

Apex beach

  

awesome road trip buddies

It was so nice to have a chance to get back to Iqaluit, and to have a chance to return to Nunavut, the land that I have not stopped thinking about ever since I left.

Qulliq lighting ceremony

 

Cafe Europa

Cambridge Bay has Cafe Europa, which is an ongoing fundraiser held at Kiilinik High School to help raise money to send high school students on a trip to Europe to learn about European history. Every Friday morning, the students bring in baked goods that they sell  along with coffee, and you can sit down at the table they set up in the hall and enjoy your treats while talking to other folks from around town.  Just like at a Starbucks! It starts around 8AM and ends when the school day and work day starts, so you can grab a coffee and a muffin right before you head to the office. Once in a while, if we're lucky, Mason will come in with his espresso machine and make lattes.

It's a good opportunity to socialize with other folks in Cambridge Bay, especially the teachers. There are limited social opportunities in a place with no bars or malls, so this is how we meet new folks in town and catch up with each other on the latest gossip. And it goes towards a great cause, allowing the students in Cambridge Bay to have an experience of a lifetime overseas.

Cafe Europa happens on Friday mornings from 8:00AM to approximately 9AM at Kiilinik High School.

The docks in winter

I went for a walk one bright, sunny but still cold afternoon. I headed down to the docks to enjoy the view of the frozen Arctic ocean in winter time.

Last week had been a tough week for the community of Cambridge Bay. We were hit with the three day blizzard. The post office has also remained closed all week.  With the post office and the convenience store forced to stay closed due to a break in, we could not receive or send mail, nor did we have a place to buy basic supplies like Tylenol after the grocery stores closed at 7PM.

So for me, it was nice to get out of the house after the blizzard and enjoy the sunny weather, out on the ice.

It's not obvious where the ocean is in the winter time when everything is frozen. You could easily mistake the frozen ocean as more land.  But the sight of the ships and boats frozen in the ice is unmistakable, and a very beautiful sight to see.  The larger majestic ships like the Martin Bergmann looked frozen not just in the ice but in time as well.

more boats parked at ht dock, waiting for the spring thaw

I also came across a patch of ice with shells from fireworks that had been set off.

In other news, a newspaper from Greenland, the Arctic Journal, recently published my piece about Cambridge Bay's blizzard last week! You can read it here.

Food bank fundraiser - coffeehouse in Cambridge Bay

On Saturday, we held a fundraiser for the food bank.  We've done it before. We hold a bake sale in the community hall, where people can come in and enjoy yummy treats while listening to live music.  We usually play a few songs, but we make it an open mic so anyone in town can come on stage and display their talents.

This time, the regular organizer had to pull out because of a family medical issue, so Christine and I ended up taking over so that the event could still happen. I was worried for a while because I'm not as experienced in bringing the community together and rounding up volunteers, but luckily it went well. We had volunteers come in to help set things up and sell the baked goods, and people came in to bring their donations of baked goods.  It felt like the whole turn showed up to the event. We sold out of our baked goods completely. People also brought in non-perishable goods to donate directly to the food bank. Some people came by just to donate cash for the food bank, without even buying anything. We were able to raise quite a bit of money for the food bank.

Vicki's fancy coffee

We also sold hot dogs and chili (in a KFC container)

playing with our guest musician Talia Magsagak

The little girls loved our cover of a song from Frozen

 

A performance by local musician Ashley Otokiak, who is blind

It was really touching to see the generosity of folks in Cambridge Bay, especially after incidents that happened last week involving vandalism of local businesses. I feel really proud to be part of this kind and caring community.

I recently published a piece on CBC about how we can start addressing the food insecurity issue in Nunavut.  Supporting the local infrastructures that already exist to help needy families, like the food bank, is one great start. Of course, we need to do more than just donate to the food bank, like addressing the root causes, but it felt good to have a chance to contribute to the community.