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.