June 27^th 1968

Dear Mum and Dad

We have been extremely lucky & have got hold of a recording of a drum dance which is a rather rare thing nowadays. I’ve recorded a bit of it in this tape. I didn’t expect to come across any in Igloolik, so I am really quite thrilled with this recording, made by an Eskimo carver. The introduction is by Joe Krimmerdjuak, a boy who lived for a year on the next street to me in Ottawa! He comes from Igloolik originally.

Hope that you are saving my letters as they are also my diary & field notes!     

                              

July 1^st Dominion Day 1968

            On Sat. there was a display to beat anything ever seen in the Royal Tournament. The 4 teachers & one of our party were leaving to get a plane from Hall Beach. That plane was scheduled to leave at 4.30. At 3.45 they were all standing outside waiting to be transported to the top of the hill where a plane was due to land. The village possesses 2 government Bombardier snow mobiles, 3 tractors, 1 R.C. Mission Bombardier & several skidoos. One bombardier was out of action. The second one started up the hill and one of its tracks fell off. The big tractor went to its rescue and toppled over into a ditch. The 2 other tractors both set off at once & narrowly missed colliding. Meanwhile the departing head teacher, who was determined to get out at all costs, climbed up behind one tractor & sat, the perfect English gentleman, on top of a 50 gallon oil drum, clutching his guitar.

Suddenly 3 skidoos converged & hitched up to the sled loaded with his luggage & they set off in a cloud of smoke to get up the hill. Meanwhile the R.C. Mission bombardier arrived on the scene belching steam, & stuttered to a halt, having been running with no water in the radiator! We were all quite helpless either with rage, or with laughter.

Eventually one of the tractors scooped up the side of the 1^st Bombardier & put it back on its track, & a load of angry people set off up the hill, hoping that the plane, that had landed there ½ an hour before, was still waiting – as the pilot had no idea that he was supposed to be taking out these 5 people! We learnt later that the plane at Hall Beach hadn’t made it, so after all the rush the 5 people had to wait till the next day to leave there anyway! [see June 7^th for the fate of the head teacher’s crates in the warehouse fire]

            We have just had a visit from Kamanik one of our hunters, & Mathusalem, the son of the other hunter. Not content with the existing language difficulties we’re trying to teach them Spanish. It’s amazing how quickly they pick up words & phrases! As Eskimo is twice as hard to learn we think that is quite fair! Last night Enoki, our other friendly hunter, came round to supper with 2 small sons as his wife is away in hospital having a baby. The meal was a tremendous pantomime with Enoki at the head of the table, cutting up this huge arctic char we had. This is a salmon-like fish, only far far tastier!!! This one weighed 7lb & gave 15 huge meals, & was caught locally. Enoki is the kindest man I’ve ever come across & his children obviously adore him. He’s very short & is always pulling super faces & explaining things with his hands. It took him about 20 mins to serve the fish because of his pantomime, & we were all in stitches, including the 2 little boys. Great jokes about which bits of cutlery to use etc. & watching the smallest boy stuff his face, nose, ears etc with chocolate cake was really funny – great big eyes looking very solemn, & retrieving crumbs from his vest.

 

July 8

Mike and Hiram have just returned from a 4 day hunting trip, & we were beginning to get worried about them. They had been off chasing walrus, & their accounts of the hunt beat anything Ernest Hemingway ever wrote. They travelled by dog sled to the sea, then by canoe to some islands in the middle of Foxe Basin where they found about 20 huge walrus basking on ice floes. They cut the engines & drifted right up behind the (sleeping) animals. Kamanik fired a 2.2 rifle & hit one on the head. The bullet bounced off and the walrus just lifted its head & looked at them as if a fly was bothering him (reminds me of King Kong being bombed on the Empire State building) Then Enoki fired & between them they killed it. Meanwhile the other animals (about 15’ long, weighing 1-2,000 lb!) slipped into the sea and started milling around the boats & bobbing up under them.

They got onto the ice floe, & got a harpoon line in the walrus, but it slipped into the sea. The waves had become really big by then, & they towed the body to a larger floe. It had a 4 foot notch round it which made it almost impossible to climb onto. They got up, & then hauled the walrus up with ropes, held behind their backs, leaning out over the water with all their weight. As they were butchering the carcass, skinning it, taking the tusks etc (it weighed about 2,000 lb) the waves started breaking up the ice floe, & it got smaller & smaller until it was about the size of a coffee table, at which point they jumped into the boats & let ½ the carcass drop into the sea. Then with 500 lb of meat (equivalent to 3 average-sized men) in each boat, they zoomed away to camp on the islands. What an adventure!

On the islands they collected terns’ eggs to eat, & Hiram found ½ a human skull that he used as a basket. They stayed at Hall Beach for 2 days with some of Enoki’s relatives. Apparantly there was non-stop Scottish music going, as whenever someone got up they put on the record player, & with the 24 hr. daylight there’s always someone up.

            The dog is now a perpetual menace & I’m covered in bites. He is the only dog suffering from bouts of simultaneous hiccups & farts that I know, & yowls & howls all day.

 

 

July 8

            Enoki came to supper yesterday. Hiram put a paper flower on his forehead & when I saw it I howled, & Enoki called me ‘amaruk’ – wolf. I went to the Anglican service last night with Enoki & co. Everyone takes off their boots & goes in in socks as there are lovely polar bear skins on the floor. Knew the hymn tunes, but not the words, so sang rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb.

The minister called a hymn no., then after a pause & a consultation with his wife in the choir, he called out the number of the English version. I had to sit with the mums on the left of the church & as surrounded at one point by 3 nursing mothers. They don’t stand during hymns, so I felt very conspicuous standing, & towering over the few women who were also standing. Felt like a giant sitting in baby furniture too, as my pew was too close to the next one & I couldn’t fold myself up small enough to kneel. I’ll obviously have to take a baby next time! The floor was littered with baby bottles, rattles & 2 sleeping children – one a little boy with no zip on his trousers. Mike had a comparatively easy time on the men’s side as it’s quieter, & Enoki was helping him find his place in the prayer book.

            The super tough geologist, Hans Trettin, is trekking out across the wilderness miles away from anywhere, & I’ve just been listening to the pilot, Doug Hemby, on the radio as he swoops across the arctic to go & move Hans’ camp. It’s very exciting to plot Doug’s position on the map as he radios it in, & trace his route. The third member of the group, Tom Pollen, has to sit & tend the radio all day & listen for signals. Very dull!

            Love Jenny x

 

July 8 Igloolik

Dear Nanny

            I am really enjoying it here still. It is now summer, which means that instead of snowing, it rains. The weather has mostly been lovely though, with days & nights of bright sunshine and blue skies. When it is fine I go up to the hill behind the village, and explore the little lakes up there. It is unexpectedly beautiful, as from down in the village the ridge looks grey and bleak, but on top there are masses of purple and yellow flowers between the rocks, and bright mosses. Also several types of song bird and ducks and gulls, and there is a lovely view of distant mountains all covered in snow. From the ridge you can watch everything that happens in the village, and see the hunters setting out across the frozen sea on sleds pulled by 10 or 15 dogs.

            Last week we played football in the middle of the village and about 20 Eskimos joined in. They are terribly strong, and went on playing for about 2 hours, long after I had given up. One of them picked the ball up under one arm, and a girl

under the other and ran the length of the pitch as if he was playing rugger!

They have a film every Saturday in a small hall, and this week it was a cowboy film, so all the children are playing cowboys & Indians. A group of them ambushed me up on the hill, and we spent the afternoon looking for birds nests, and I was lent a super cowboy hat to wear.

Love Jenny x

 

July 11^th 1968

Dear M & D

            The barber has been experimenting again and people are appearing all over the village with strange haircuts. This week they are all shaved almost bald except for a tuft of long hair falling over their eyes in front. Very weird.

            I was out this afternoon, & when I came back I found the puppy, Amarok, looking very guilty, tail between his legs. In the living room I found everything in the house that is movable, & at dog level, scattered & chewed on the carpet. He’d emptied the kitchen garbage bin, the food cupboard (tins) towels from the bathroom, and my boots, shoes & the contents of a duffle bag in my room! He looked so repentant I think he would have put everything back if he could.

My first ever colour slides came back in the mail. You’ll be surprised at the amount of colour there is here where everything at first glance is white snow & grey rock.

Love Jenny x

 

July 16

Dear M & D

            Well what a day of high adventure! I’ve been cosily inside for 36 hours (except for weather readings) listening to a tremendous storm beating down from the north. Winds were up to 30 m.p.h. (nearly off our wind guage’s scale!) + rain, and  everything moveable in the village moved south, including the heavy box with our weather equipment in it, and 2 dustbins (Hiram leapt along the beach chasing one of them!) This morning it had died down a bit, and Kamanerk came round with a huge grin. His boat, which was tied up at the sea edge 15 miles away, has been blown away, still tied to an ice pan, with Enoki’s sled, also on an ice pan in hot pursuit. Komanirk & the 2 boys, swathed in water proof clothing, + Carol & me & K’s wife & children, all massed on the beach to see them leave on K’s sled to go & borrow another canoe to look for theirs. Unfortunately the tide was in and had lifted the ice on the bay and left a crack 30’ wide and about 4’ deep between the beach & the ice, so they couldn’t cross it to start their journey.

Every-one dispersed and the Eskimos started skimming stones & eventually we all went home for lunch! They left in the afternoon & spent that day & night & the next day chugging up & down the coast. They gave up looking & came back to a camp on the island, & there was Kamanerk’s boat on the beach. Someone else had seen it & towed it back for him!

Today I learned that the P.M. Pierre Trudeau is coming to Igloolik next Thursday, July 25. Never saw him in Ottawa! There’s a mad scramble to clear the village up now. All dead dogs are mysteriously disappearing & plastic bags full of anuk seem fewer on the beach.

            Last Night Enoki came round & was teaching Mike & me Eskimo till 2.30 AM. He was teaching us colours & said my face was “nice & white from being inside.” Actually, did he but know it, it is bronzed from being outside! He gave me an Eskimo name which I insist means sylph-like, but Mike claims means thin. Anyway it is: Salooktork (pronounced Shaluktuk,) He doesn’t speak any English, but was in the South for 4 months on a course once & he can do a brilliant imitation of an English voice which sounds rather like Peter Sellers talking gibberish. He can still remember some phrases, and stands & points to a map & with his chin in his collar he says “You are heah” “This is mai hat, this is my head, this is my hair.” Then collapses in giggles.

When he was south he saw a troop of Scottish pipers in kilts & got excited because he thought they were women! Because Eskimos only have sparse beards & white men are all hairy Enoki was curious to know if white women have hairy chests! I assured him that I didn’t, personally.

Mike now has a 6 week beard & a special Vestey salon haircut. Hiram, incredibly, grows longer & thinner each day and the children ask me if he eats very much!

 

Spring in Igloolik

June 10^th 1968 Igloolik

I think teaching here would be a tremendous experience. The children are all very eager to learn & when they are given a day off they all groan, then hang round the school.

Travel out of Igloolik is very dodgy now as the ice is breaking up & they won’t take the Bombardiers out. The mail therefore came by plane which was fortunately dropping some supplies here for 2 geologists who have arrived unexpectedly [Hans Trettin].

The warehouse in Hall Beach caught fire this week after some crazy character used a blow lamp on his skidoo inside. Colin Wynne is shipping out all his belongings & 3 crates of his stuff caught fire!

Another helicopter is missing now. There’s still hardly any water as it’s even impossible to get out onto the sea ice to get that now!

Frank was extremely impressed by your mustache Dad as he has a small walrus one. He is now determined to let it grow into handlebars. I told him it’ll take 30 years!! The children wrote in their current events book “there are 2 scientists, one has white hair, & the other has a mustache, but it isn’t a real one”

     Photo: Frank emptying the toilet, known as the 'Honey bucket'. Hiram at the table. 

       Hiram filled Frank’s pipe with toilet tissue & tobacco & Frank smoked it all. We’ve just told him about & he says it tasted very good & he couldn’t understand why it drew so well & why people kept asking him how it tasted!

Photo: Hiram waiting for me to cut his hair, wearing a toilet liner. 

The main “street” is now under a foot of water & slush. The children love it & are floating about on boxes & oil drums & paddling in it. The village has been invaded by gulls during the last week & they hop around on the roof sounding like thunder.

Ottawa has shipped up about 200 mattresses for no apparent reason, & they can’t give them away. I wondered why so many sleds were de lux, mattress-padded models!

Now the snow is melting all sorts of things are coming to light, including 50 telegraph poles Ottawa was convinced were needed in Igloolik! Actually we already have poles & a telephone system. Only about 25 houses have phones.

I’ve managed to pick up BBC world service on our radio.

Our loo is the bucket variety & I’m sure I’ll never remember to flush the lavatory when I get back. We have a ventilation pipe which blasts cold air down into the bucket so you don’t sit there very long, despite the fact that we are all reading The Invisible Man which is in the bathroom. Should finish it by Sept.

Jackie Tuktuk came round with his squeeze box & we’ve just had a little musical session with him & Enoki & Kamanerk the 2 hunters. Enoki taught 4 of us to do a jig & we were bounding round the room doing a 5-some reel! as Jackie played. He’s very quick &  picked up a French Canadian tune Mike plays on the mouth organ. Mike has just asked Jackie if he can play any Eskimo songs. After a lot of thought he said yes & started to play Scotland the Brave.

Soon transport will be difficult as the ice is unsafe for large vehicles.

Photo: Kamanik and family trying to leave Igloolik village at low tide to go out to camp. The qamutiq is on sea ice beyond the tide cracks, and he is pulling one of the dogs.

Yesterday the Conservative candidate for this area arrived to meet the villagers. That’s quite something as it’s a hell of a trip to make for an hour’s meeting. It was fascinating. The women sat at the back of the hall, the men at the front. Latecomers (me) on the floor in the front. Women kept wandering out holding babies ominously away from them, but over your head & you flinch & clear a path. A background noise of coughing & a baby in its mother’s hood rattling the plastic blackout curtains. A boy behind me banging his skidoo keys on the iron stove. The candidate gives me a warm grin as I creep in late, a woman sitting just behind him takes a little naked baby out of her hood & proceeds to breast feed it – she is sitting facing the entire audience.

All the boys stare enviously at the young interpreter’s drainpipe trousers & leather jacket. Most people are wearing traditional clothing – sealskin boots, parkas etc. The candidate keeps saying how pleased he is to see so many people at the meeting & the interpreter is giggling. Then he says the people may shake hands with him now, but no-one seems to want to. If they vote for him he will visit them often. Not a murmur. Are there any questions? An old Eskimo stands up & speaks for 5 minutes. The interpreter says he has a one bed roomed house, why can’t he have a 3 bed roomed one, also his back aches, what are they going to do about it?

After the meeting people do shake hands with him & he pats all the women on the back.

I’m getting some sealskin boots made.

Igloolik June 16th Sun

I was out yesterday with Frank who was shooting a movie of the children playing in the village. We found a crowd of kids playing a super game throwing stones at a piece of wood like we used to on the beach. It is a super Bolex camera, costing $1,500. Frank was offered a job with Antonioni the great film man himself, but chose graduate work instead. He's got all kinds of ideas for experimental movies, but he is resigned to shooting 'home movies'.

            There are more kinds of birds here now including sandpipers & longspurs & great thrill, yesterday I saw a flock of eider ducks flying overhead!!!

Photo: How I loved Amarok! 

            Saturday being movie night I decided it was time I sampled Igloolik night life. The movie was 'Moon Pilot' a revolting 1950's US trashy thing that should never have been made at all. It was fascinating to see a building full of no-English speaking people shrieking at the jokes & giggling at the stupid things in the film. The projector is worked by the store clerk - a great tough man. A boy sits at a desk by the door & collects 50c as you come in. If a whole lot of people start to come in late the film is stopped & the lights go on until people are settled, then off it goes again. I sat at the back with the nursing mothers. The film gets everyone in a great mood, & when each reel is changed the lights go on & there's a general burst of jokes & comments. After the film you all dive for the door & the fresh air. As at church there is a constant stream of mothers taking children out & behind the fuel tank.

            I've fallen in love with a little husky pup. The RCMP used to have 20 dogs, but theses were replaced by snow mobiles & they got rid of all but one dog - Alice. She has just had 4 pups. Yesterday I managed to grab one & pick it up. A look of ecstatic joy came onto its face & it closed its eyes & snuggled up to my parka. If only I could keep one! The things eat about twice the amount that I do though, & could never live in a city.

 Photo: Children with a new born husky pup.