22:37
 |
| Landing in Cambridge Bay |
Wow, not sure where that day went! We got to sleep in until 7:30. Woo hoo! Some of you will be laughing like crazy at that last statement because you know how late I usually sleep. On these cruises it’s all relative.
We are moving up in the colour group line so we didn’t have quite as much time to lollygag as we had yesterday. Peter Porter, one of our Inuit guides and the guy who patiently stood with me until I could see the Arctic ground squirrel yesterday, talked about the Inuit communities. It was interesting to see the divisions of the Inuit lands and where the various communities were located. I’d like to have a map of that, an old fashioned paper map. Google Earth is helpful but I haven’t dragged my brain into the 21 century when it comes to representing political and geographical features of a landscape.
From where we were anchored in Cambridge Bay, we could see a Canadian coast guard ship, The Sir Wilfred Laurier, and one of the sealift ships. I didn’t see the name on it. There was a helicopter on the rear deck of the Laurier and while we were going to shore in the zodiac we saw it lift off the deck and fly off. That was cool!
 |
| Sir Wilfred Laurier |
It was a very short transfer into shore where we dumped our life jackets and our rubber boots. In hindsight, today would have been a good day to keep the rubber boots on. We had to take off out boots when we went into buildings and it wasn’t hard to see why. The roads were pretty muddy and it did rain a bit while we were there. It would have been much easier to simply step out of and into the rubber boots than having to undo and then do up laces each time. Not a huge deal really, and we did get our bending over exercise to keep us flexible.
 |
| Kind of muddy underfoot and a road sign |
We visited the high school, the library,
 |
| The library |
the visitor’s centre, the Anglican church, the Canadian High Arctic Research Station, and the Red Fish art studio where we got to sample some traditional food. There were people selling crafts at every venue. At the library I bought some coffee beans for friends.
 |
| KAAPITTIAQ means 'good coffee' |
Adventure Canada had given us some of that brand of coffee on one of the trips and it was a big hit so, now that we were in the community where it was roasted, I thought I’d pick up some more.
In every place we went Inuit art was on display. There was a series of water colour paintings illustrating the creation myth of the landforms around Cambridge Bay. In another spot there was a mural painted close to the ceiling so you could see it from the second floor. I think it was the visitors centre that had a sculpture made from the skull of a whale.
 |
| Explanation of the carving |
 |
| Fabric wall-hanging in quviut by Agnes Iqqugaqtug |
In the CHARS building art was part of the floor and the whole design of the building was heavily influenced by the elders and by what would be good for the community as a whole.
 |
| Canadian High Arctic Research Station |
 |
| Information pamphlet about a polar speaker series |
 |
| Information on Arctic goose population monitoring |
 |
| Sustainable community design and Inuit self-determination |
The church has some very nice stained glass depicting scenes from Inuit life
 |
| View from the aisle |
We had a couple of grade 8 boys from the basketball team as our guides for the town tour. In reality their job was to get us from point A to point B and to answer our questions if they could. We had been briefed beforehand to ask them open ended questions that might prompt a longer answer. I don’t think we were very successful on that score. Each of the boys wore a mic and speaker so we could better hear what they had to say. I don’t think they used the mic’s for their intended purpose, but they used them to greet other tour guides as we passed them and to call to each other, one from the head, and tail of the line. They were very good about keeping us on schedule and shepherding us when one of us straggled and had to be guided to the next presentation.
There is an interesting set of sculptures just across the the road from where we landed. There are two wolves, teeth bared, facing away from the beach and toward a musk ox.
The story of how these sculptures came to be is an interesting one. The elders were concerned that it was getting hard to get the youth out of bed to engage in some meaningful activity. I’m not sure how the idea came about but a plan was hatched that saw the youth go to the dump and pick out a piece of metal that wouldn’t be useful for anything. They brought it back and with assistance transformed the junk into the sculptures of the wolves and the musk ox. The wolves symbolize the settlers nipping at the heels of the people to get them to change their ways. The musk ox is a solid creature that hasn’t changed for centuries: two realities of the youth in Cambridge Bay today.
When it came to ‘A Taste of Place’ which is what the tastings of traditional Inuit food is called, I decided to try everything. There was raw Arctic char on a cracker, smoked Arctic char, a meatball of cooked musk ox, bannock, and a small cube of beluga skin. I have tried the beluga skin once before and didn’t like it but this piece had a milder flavour and I didn’t mind it. Both types of Arctic char were good. I was surprised that the raw char didn’t taste fishy.
We came back to the ship for lunch and in the afternoon there were presentations as we raised the anchor and sailed east from Cambridge Bay. It was another good day with a little bit of rain and cloudy skies.
 |
| Large sign in front of the RCMP detachment |
No comments:
Post a Comment