Crafts, fishing, snowmobiles and tundra

It is now the end of the school day on Friday and again I'm writing from the Sanikiluaq school. Yesterday was spent doing crafts at the school. The co-principal and trip coordinator Lisi Kavik had been telling Brian and I that she was looking forward to paying her craftspeople as professionals and they were worth every penny. Students signed up for workshops for yesterday and today. I have to admit that that structure pretty much fell apart yesterday afternoon but it worked out very well regardless.

Our students got to try their hand at Ulu making. An ulu is a traditional moon-shaped inuit knife with a wooden handle. Considering the problems we had coming up (did I mention that a student almost made Brian miss the Montreal flight because he packed - yes - nail scissors in carry-on.), we had better make sure to tell them to pack the ulus in cargo. They also got to make and polish wax cast silver rings, grass baskets, bolas, duffel socks and soapstone carving. I tried my hand at basket weaving and MY GOD do I have a new found RESPECT for women who do this and do it well. It takes a huge amount of skill and patience. The instructor Sarah has been to native art conferences in Ottawa and she makes fabulous baskets with soapstone carvings on top of the lids. It must take days and days.

Now speaking of soapstone carving, since we got into town, I have been solicited by 7 different soapstone carvers who want to sell me seals or loons or walruses. It is getting to the point where I'm afraid to answer Margarets' phone anymore. It doesn't help that I can't remember anyone's name because there are ten carvers named Simeone or Isaac for example and their last names all sound the same like Tukaluk or Iqaluk or something like that. I've decided to search out a couple of carvers who do original and interesting work, and then after that make my purchases of small loons or ducks or whatever. My luggage is going to be full of rocks. Everyone is getting soapstone. By the way, if you want me to pick something up, post a request and I'll see what I can do.

Last night, the students had the chance to experience a cultural night at the school with one of the elders and they tried on traditional clothes.

Today, while the students were at school doing more crafts, some of the teachers went out on the land to go ice fishing. So Brian and I got ourselves bundled up by our hosts (me more so than he) and we met at the edge of town on the lake. Well, the snow was blowing and it was an absolute white out. Apparently this only happens a couple of times a year. They kept asking each other "do you have gps"? "no. do you"? "no". But of course the Inuit teachers led the way and everything was fine. My ride was a teacher called Mike from Saskatchewan. We travelled on skidoo for about half an hour to the first fishing site. This is hard to describe. The terrain is kind of rolling bog with absolutely no vegetation other than juniper like trees and lichen. The inuit drill holes in the ice, fish out the slush and lie down on their sides or stomaches. They peer down into the hole and do jig fishing meaning they dangle the hook and lure and jiggle it. When a fish bites, they pull the fish out. Got some pictures. Looks really impressive. I did try fishing for arctic char but after aboout 20 minutes, the line came loose and I lost my hook. Lucky for me Betsy fished it out again later. But anyway, you can see all the way to the bottom of the lake and I could see little minnows swimming around but no large fish for me. Betsy caught three somewhat impressive sized char. Pretty cool. At around noon they made a fire and everyone shared bread, munchies, rice crispy squares, tea etc. We headed back around 1:30 or 2pm and now I'm back at Nuiyak school. The students tell me they are having a great time and knowing them I'm sure they didn't give the teachers any trouble. This evening is another cultural evening with elders and tomorrow we go out on the land with them.

The whole thing is so surreal. It's not like the Yukon where there are trees and mountains. This is really, really barren land. But we saw geese and Mike is pretty sure he saw a fox.

Anyhow, I'm going to swing home now for dinner. My hostess is a wonderful cook.