Monday,
September 4th. Gjoa Haven on King William Island
Today was our first land excursion to an Inuit community. We had an early breakfast and then got organized quickly with our shore gear because our group (orange) was disembarking first. The ride in the zodiac from the ship to shore was rough and we got fairly wet. Luckily, I was not in the front where they got the worst of it. We had a ‘wet’ landing, meaning that we beached and had to wade a couple of steps to the shore. The town is located on an island made of glacier debris, all small rocks and sand, with no bedrock. Everything is sandy and rocky. When it is windy here, they have sandstorms. The town has a couple of thousand Inuit inhabitants and is very bleak. Everywhere there is jetsam and flotsam of leftover and castoff machines, boats, vehicles, and some rubbish. Interestingly, I thought we would be met at the beach by local people anxious to see us, we I’m sure they don’t get very many boats here. However, the only people were a couple of local guides who were to give us a tour of the town. Our group being first was led off through town the cultural centre and museum. Turns out it was locked, and no one was there. This being Labour Day our Inuit guide Joe (from the ship) blamed it on the holiday. But, that showed how they weren’t really interested in us. We had to wait about 20 minutes before they found someone with a key. The museum was interesting and well appointed with native artifacts and information about their history and culture. It had examples of the lifestyles and artwork, and of course a gift shop which attracted most of our group. It also had some history of the Norwegian Amundsen, who had beat Scott and Franklin to the south pole and then was the first to sail through the Northwest Passage after Franklin died trying to find it. Interesting that British history doesn’t talk about him very much. He spent two summers and three winters in Gjoa Haven and is very important to the Inuit here. They have a monument dedicated to him and a lot of posters hanging in the local community centre celebrating his explorations. Then we got separated from our local guide by Joe (our Inuit guided from the ship) who led us across town, around the beach to see the monument to Amundsen. From there we walked back to the school where the elders of the village were gathered to welcome us and provide us a flavour of their culture. They served a small bowl of fish soup, or caribou soup, and some bannock bread. Then we sat in the gym and watched a few performances of a drummer and some singers, who never got out of their seats and sounded very morose. I felt that I was at a funeral rather than a welcoming ceremony. To be fair, I have never found Canadian native music interesting. Then they had two young girls do some ‘throat singing’ which is an interesting guttural noise, but they kept giggling and loosing their place. And finally, they had a group of children perform some square dances for us. Square dances you say? Where did they learn that? From the whalers that came to this area in the last couple of centuries. I was surprised that none of this seemed particularly organized. It was certainly not the glitzy dog and pony show that I have seen in other countries, but neither did it appear that they had any real pride in their presentation or culture. It was very disappointing and certainly not what the guides on our ship had led us to expect. Having reread this, it all sounds pretty negative… but it wasn’t really. I enjoyed the opportunity to visit the town and experience the community. There were several highlights. One was during the square dancing the kids came to get a couple of people from the audience to join in, and a little girl picked John. He loves that kind of thing we had fun watching him. Then after the whole show, one of the team, David Reid, representing a charity called Project North presented a large amount of hockey equipment to the village. There were sticks, sweaters, gloves, skates and a few other pieces. You could see the excitement of the kids. They couldn’t wait to get at it, and they did! Not sure why it wasn’t organized by the community, but people were just allowed to help themselves. It was a feel good moment and reminded me of taking school supplies to three needy schools in Ghana. After that we walked back to the zodiacs and returned to the ship. After lunch there were three talks. One about the British sailor who found evidence of Franklin’s lost expedition and said that there was evidence of cannibalism (he was vilified by the navy and the country for suggesting such a thing); the second listening to our two Inuit guides talking about ‘Land and Sea Ice Journeys’; and the third about ‘What’s Beneath Your Feet’ all about botany and the plants that live in the Arctic. Then it was time for the Gathering where we debriefed about the day. Then were told that we now have 1 case of COVID and three cases of the Norwalk virus, so we are going to have to clamp down with more stringent sanitizing and we will have all our food served to us, rather than helping ourselves. Hopefully it doesn’t get worse.
It was interesting to visit the town and see how the people lived. There was a lot of automobiles around and everyone seemed to have satellite TV. Joe's pictures give you a sense of what it was like. He's right about the event with the local people; the show didn't meet the hype. The museum was very good and we had fun taking our boots off before we could go in. Amazing how 20 people all dressed up with Arctic gear can fit into a place for 10. We were supposed to stagger the museum visits by groups but the delay in opening meant that those putting their boots back on were sharing the small ante room with the new group taking them off. Carnage. If only the locals could have watched that show.
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