IQ Day

Each department in the Government of Nunavut is allowed to have up to 4 IQ days per year.  My first experience with an IQ day came on Friday July 17th. 

IQ stands for Inuit Quajimajatuqangit, which means "Inuit values".  The goal of IQ days is to learn about the traditional Inuit lifestyle by experiencing some of traditional Inuit activities.

There were about 15 people from our office that participated in IQ day.  Although participation is voluntary, it is encouraged as seen below by the President of The Nunavut Housing Corporation cleaning Arctic Char that he contributed for lunch.   He also provided some caribou steaks that were cooked for lunch.

The IQ day was held out at Sylvia Grinnell Park.  We started by gathering at the park pavillion and had some coffee and snacks.  One of the most popular snacks was bannock, which is traditional Inuit bread.

One of the staff members from the Department of the Environment, Parks division came out and took many of the participants on a tour of the park. 

Here are two of our friends (Rob being a colleague from work) on their way back from the Park Tour



While the tour was going on I was preparing lunch being the designated burger, char and caribou steak flipper.

Lunch was great and during lunch we were all regaled with stories of Iqaluit and area.  One such story took place back to the late 1990's.  The president of NHC talked about a time when he went out to the other side of Apex, (which is about 5 KM from Iqaluit) Caribou hunting and saw a large herd of caribou in the area.  In the late 1990's, there were many caribou harvested from that area.  We were told about Caribou that would come into Iqaluit and graze right up to the back door of many residents. 

We also heard of many times when polar bears had come into Iqaluit over the years.  One being shot by the RCMP in the middle of town. 

As you can see below, some of the girls from the office were listening intently to the stories and having a great time at IQ day! 

After lunch we all went down to the river to fish.  The first fish was caught by our IT guy David.  Rob seen with his dear wife (Rachel, 4 pictures above) caught a nice fish too.  The biggest fish was caught by our Manager of Staff Housing, Mike.  He caught a 10 pound arctic char.  The interesting thing is that Mike is allergic to fish and goes fishing wearing surgical gloves.  Further he cannot eat anything that he catches.  Jacquie and I have been the glad recipient of some of his char. 

Here are some of our fishing photo's:

All in all IQ day was a fantastic experience on a wonderful day, in a beautiful location.  At the end of the day, the person below was admiring the lovely view on the shores of the Sylvia Grinnell River.  A picture that sums up the whole day for me!  :-)