Maybe it’s the cold. Maybe its the harsh surroundings. Or the peaceful quiet. But anyone who spends time with the kind, warm-hearted Inuvialuit people of the Northwest Territories’ western Arctic is impressed with how lively, vibrant and colourful life with these folks can be.
Take the spirited Kingalik Jamboree, a three-day June festival that celebrates the return of migratory ducks. The jamboree unfolds on Victoria Island in Holman, a village of 460 set among surreal frozen expanses and rocky cliffs north of the 70th parallel.
“These people are so hospitable,” says Yellowknife filmmaker Allan Booth, who has attended many times to film the event. “Visitors are treated like family. I actually sometimes find myself wondering why the people here are so nice. I always think it’s the most extraordinary place I’ve ever seen. There are so few people, and the place is so vast… it’s like you’re standing at the dawn of civilization.”
When hunters come through Holman, the community cheerfully organizes evening drum-dancing and throat-singing events, and prepares feasts of muktuk (raw whale skin) and quak (meat that’s frozen raw, then eaten).
Locals subsist mainly on hunting and fishing, and specialize in selling qiviut, the under-wool of the Arctic muskox, whose value has soared in recent years. Local women carefully collect the wool, softer than angora. It’s then shipped south to be crafted into sweaters, hats and mittens. Even global fashion centres such as London and Paris have made qiviut their little secret. And though carving out a living is tough, the Inuvialuit are extremely artistic. Experts at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, which houses the biggest collection of Holman prints anywhere, admire the artworks’ narrative character and praise the stencilling technique skill.
The Inuvialuit, or “real people,” are the Inuit who live in six communities here, speak Inuvialuktun and have managed to overcome a host of threats to their survival. Which makes them unique. “These people have figured out how to adapt to probably the biggest cultural changes in the entire Arctic,” says David Morrison, curator and archaeologist at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Says Kudlak, a 40-something native woman: “I was raised in a modern era and I’ve kind of lost touch with my historical reference points. I know my mother was born in an igloo. The elderly have experienced so many changes!” www.nwttravel.nt.ca www.virtualmuseum.ca Find local artwork at the Holman Eskimo Co-operative print shop. www.arcticcharinn.com/holman-print-shop.htm
The CTC produced a version of this story for its GoMedia website.
