Monthly Archives: March 2008

This is too hilarious not to share! Rick Mercer, Canada’s favourite travelling court jester, recently stopped in Yellowknife for the Arctic Winter Games.

I love how he tries everything, from throat singing to traditional games.

 Check out the video! 

(And remember, Rick will be in Inuvik for the Petroleum Show this summer.)

  Henrick is a reindeer herder who’s lived in Inuvik for many years. At today’s jamboree, he wore the traditional dress from his home country. (Possibly Greenland? I’ll find out and post later.)

Those boots and fur leggings are made of reindeer fur. 

   My neighbour Eli Arkin took these photos in January.  You can see a few buildings in Tuktoyaktuk, including the red “Stanton’s” grocery store. It’s about a two-hour drive from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk by ice road. 

 It’s bright around 11pm now, so the northern lights aren’t as visible. End of the season!

  

     Drum dancing is quite a spectacle. It’s nice to see elders and young people dancing together!Here is a link to an article I wrote about drum dancers, back in the News/North days.  (I especially like the very last picture, which shows Abel Tingmiak with a young Jeremy Allen, who is probably the most photographed boy in Inuvik!)  

 This hairstyle is common for babies in the north.It’s just a ponytail worn on top!

 This weekend marks the 51st annual Muskrat Jamboree in Inuvik. There was a drum dance last night and there will be plenty of games throughout the weekend.Here is the opening ceremony, where the cake was cut by guests of honour Mary Evik Ruben and Victor Allen. (I believe the cake was made by young people at the Youth Centre.) 

Foxes have been leaving their light footsteps everywhere in the community.  Thanks to Ashli for this photo! 

Here’s another shot of Parkview apartments, with the Utilidors connecting to the building.That blue tarp seems to have been by someone (kids?) trying to climb the barbed wire to the old diesel reservoir.  

  This is the Moses Greenland building in Inuvik.It proudly flies the Gwich’in flag, which shows a caribou. 

Cold air really makes exhaust visible. 

 

The legion has a shuffleboard table. Why is it so smooth? Sun-Glo Five-Star Shuffleboard Wax. 

It turns out this company offers bus trips to Whitehorse. 

 It turns out there is a St.Bernard in Inuvik. It’s large as a prize hog!

 Another pink sky with some heat escaping the buildings. Thanks to Ashli for the photo. 

 

 
   This is the magazine Redwire, which is distributed free to youth in Inuvik.It explicitly recommends and instructs young aboriginal people to “take direct action” and burn bridges, break power lines, throw molotov cocktails at vehicles, etc. This is rationalized as “sabotage of the corporate colonial system,” which is here left vague but basically refers to industrial activity such as logging and urban construction coming into aboriginal land. It’s published in Vancouver.I don’t mean to cause a media controversy, but has anyone actually opened one of these and read it? It’s a guide to destroying stuff! It specifically advocates torching bridges using molotov cocktails! To be fair, I have never seen a young person in Inuvik actually reading this stuff.

Looks like someone is a fan of the band Metallica!

Here’s Ashli — you might recognize her from the Caribou Cafe — with a random husky puppy which suddenly walked up and asked to be held.How about that!  

Inuvik’s Legion Hall — which is the furthest north in Canada — held a party on Saturday to celebrate St.Patrick’s day.  

There was green beer, dancing, celtic music and the band played “O Danny Boy.” 

Thanks to Maia Lepage for taking some of these!

Lakeview apartments are pretty high up! 

This is a decoration bought from Beckett Business Services.It’s really a Christmas ornament, but it’s nice year-round.

Produce in Inuvik is sometimes on its last legs.It’s not unusual to buy something and have it turn bad within a day.  

Many athletes from Inuvik have travelled to Yellowknife for the Arctic Winter Games.

The games feature ski competition, biathlon, traditional sports and games, and also indoor volleyball and soccer.

Thousands of people will be attending and volunteering at the games, and Stephen Harper was there yesterday.

Some young photographers have set up a FLICKR account, where you can see photos from the games! (The one seen above is from this account).

ALSO: Here is the CBC’s gallery of pictures.

The “Poor Tom” band recently finished three weeks at the Mad Trapper.

That’s eighteen shows, Monday to Saturday, starting at 10pm and finishing at 2am.It’s been great fun, and hopefully they’ll ask us back soon. 

Thanks to everyone who came out! 

Here are things you learn, spending 6 nights a week at the Trapper:

• The band aren’t the only ones there 6 nights a week.
• “The Midnight Special“ may be the greatest bar song ever. (People always dance.)
• …in case of a fight, the band keeps playing!
• Real business on weekends begins at midnight.

 I first mistook this dog for an arctic fox, until it walked closer.It was walking around very late at night. 

.Another shot from the Arctic Chalet. This looks like fun! 

Doesn’t this dog have an expression of dread?  

Here is a quote from Roy Ipana, chair of the Inuvik Hunters and Trappers.

It’s about the decline of caribou, which is one of the most important stories of the century. (When you think about it.) Hunters must now apply for tags, which are government permission to hunt the animals.

“It’s not like long ago – not even like a few years ago — where someone tells you there’s caribou and you just go and you’re back the same day. Now you’re going to have to take a tent and spend a couple of days out there. We didn’t have to do that even five years ago.”

Everywhere it’s the same story. Hunters are going further and further on the land, often coming back empty-handed.

(Photo lifted from deltanewsweb.com)

   Inuvik’s travelling grocer — Bill Rutherford whom everyone calls the Fruit Man — is both truck driver and merchant.He recently had some good deals on oranges, because it was his last day in town. 

 This is a pretty neat-looking building.If it were renovated, it could be very nice.

 One funny aspect of country music at CBC: There are so many drinking songs!We try to avoid playing them, because it would be insensitive to people dealing with alcohol abuse.(Example here, Merle Haggard’s “I think I’ll just stay here and drink,” at track 5.) 

     The Arctic Chalet hotel has some impressive furs on its walls.These appear to be muskox, wolf, and bear.  

 Ingamo Hall has a popular outdoor hockey rink.On Saturday, some kids joined the Youth Centre for hot chocolate, marshmallows and of course, a few games.(They chose Oilers vs. Canadians as their team names, by the way.)

 This is a very well-crafted and cheerful sign.Again, there are two faces in a circle! Is this a theme or what? 

Snowmachines are always fun. Here’s a close-up of the track, which grips the ice and moves the machine forward.  

The Mad Trapper holds an open stage on Saturday afternoons.

Anyone with an instrument can show up, and usually people play fiddle tunes and country music like the Red River Jig. 

 I brought the CBC field recorder today, so expect an interview with fiddler James Rogers sometime this week on Northwind.

UPDATE!! Click here to listen to the music! trapper_.wav

Here is a video by Marc Winkler. It shows Inuvik’s snowshoe trails, which are on the edge of town.Music by Boards of Canada Four Tet!

 A very interesting journalist flew from London to Inuvik this week. Oliver Burkeman writes for the Guardian UK,  (see site here) which is an internationally respected publication with some web savvy.He’s going to be writing a kind of travel piece, describing life in the changing arctic.“My main focus is to do with the changing economy of the Canadian arctic, and climate change, and competing claims for polar maritime rights between Canada and Russia, etc etc; I have a bunch of interviews set up on this stuff. But what I really need to do, as well, is just to get a sense of regular life in Inuvik,” he said.Here Oliver (left) is speaking to Chris from CBC at the Cafe Gallery, which is Inuvik’s coffee and sandwich shop.I’ll post the article when it’s published, and in the meantime here’s his column on Celine Dion in Africa.