Jacquie and her Bosses

Before Christmas we had the opportunity to go to the Christmas Party for the Department of the Environment. 

Interestingly, Jacquie and I only get invited to 3 or 4 Christmas parties per year in Iqaluit and coincidentally the Rotary Christmas party and the Department of Environment were both on the same evening.  We had scheduled in the Rotary Club party first and purchased the tickets so decided to make that our primary event and had dinner there.  We promised to stop in and visit the Department of the Environment Christmas party too.

So,  after dinner we stopped at the Arctic Hotel, where the Department of the Environment Christmas party was taking place and joined in the fun.  We got there in time to play a couple of games and chat with many of the department staff.

At one point in the evening, Jacquie managed to pose between the Deputy Minister and Assistant Deputy Minister as shown below.

The gentleman on the left is Mr. David Akeeagok, Deputy Minister for the Department of the Environment and Mr. Steve Pinksen is the gentleman on the right who has become the new Assistant Deputy Minister. (Congratulations Steve)

A fun time was had by all!

Repulse Bay

In early December I had the opportunity to go to Repulse Bay. 

Its a small hamlet of approximately 750 people located exactly on the Arctic Circle, on the north shore of Repulse Bay. Transport to the community is provided primarily by air and by an annual sealift. Repulse Bay (Naujaat) is home to a wide variety of animals including polar bears, caribou, seals, whales, and walrus. There are also approximately one hundred species of birds in the area, including gyrfalcons and peregrine falcons.

The Naujaat community continues to rely on traditional sealing, fishing, hunting, trapping, and carving for their livelihood, together with tourism. Naujaat is known for its Inuit artists, especially carvers (typically creating small realist animal sculptures of ivory, soapstone, marble and antler), as well as jewellery and crafts.

I had the opportunity to meet a number of the community residents.  The residents are very friendly and inviting.  While I was there the finishing touches were being done on a new multi-million dollar health centre.  It has brought many tradesman and construction workers to the community for almost 2 years.  It has had an amazing boost to the community.  Also, many of the local's had the opportunity to get labour jobs at the job site. 

In the Hamlet there is the Artic Circle Arch, which when walking through it signifies entering the Arctic Circle.

On the Friday that I was to fly out, the temperature was -55C with the wind chill and there was some blowing snow.  I assumed that the chances of us getting out that day were slim.  We were to leave at 9:30AM.  Interestingly the flight crew was staying in the hotel I was staying at and at breakfast I had an opportunity to talk to the pilot.  He told me that chances were actually pretty good that we would get out.  Since the plane did an overnight in Repulse Bay it was already on the ground.  He said its actually much easier to take off than to land, so as long as he can see the run way and its clear, we'd be OK.  I wasn't sure if the conversation with the pilot was reasurring or scared the crap out of me but it was interesting information.

Anyway, we did get off the ground and I went from there to Baker Lake, then to Rankin Inlet and finally home to Iqaluit.  Just another fun day on the job.  :-)

Sailing on the St. Lawrence on Remembrance Day

No, I'm not kidding, we were out on the St. Lawrence sailing on November 11th.  It was the nicest November 11th that I ever remember.  We went to the Remembrance Day service in Brockville and then Randy said.  What about a sail?

The temperature was 16C - 17C, sunny with maybe 15 knots of wind - really a perfect sailing day. 

sailing on the St lawrence

It was about 2:00PM in the afternoon when we got down to the yacht club.  Admittedly, Randy's sail boat was the only one still in the water, but out we went. 

It was truly a beautiful day.  We sailed for a couple of hours down to 3 sister Islands, over to the American side and part way down to our friends Dean and Bonnie's house.  

I am going to attach a video that describes the adventure best. 

Jacquie and I had a great time.  Thanks Randy for taking us out.  As a side note, I'm writing this blog on November 13th - we are back in Iqaluit and it's -8C and there's a blizzard happening outside.  Wow, its amazing how a 3 hours plane ride can change things.  :-)

Until we can get south to upload, watch our video at:  http://youtu.be/URG0wZXYNhY

National Art Centre Orchestra Visits Iqaluit

Iqaluit had a fantastic treat when the National Art Centre Orchestra visited our fine city as part of a northern tour that stretched from Iqaluit to Whitehorse with a number of stops inbetween. 

This 2 hour concert was filled with beautiful traditional classical pieces as well as some surprises that are native to the North.  The first surprise was an accordian player from Pangnirtang named Simonie Keenainak who played with the orchestra.  It was amazing how beautiful the two distinct sounds blended together.  He played a number of tunes including a couple of eastern jigs that all of the musicians had fun with that got the audience tapping their toes and clapping their hands.

Another northern type of music that is native to the north is the traditional Inuit music of throat singing.  There were 2 throat singers that regaled the audience with 2 pieces.  Again the amazing thing for me was how the orchestra blended in with the throat singers.

The most impressive part of the evening for me was Canada's number one violinist James Ehnes who played a 1725 Stradivarius Violin that is so precious it is said to be irreplaceable and virtually priceless.  His playing mezmorized the audience.  It was a treat and I'm sure, at the National Art Centre in Ottawa, he would have played to a sold out crowed at probably hundred's of dollars a ticket for the best seats in the house.  We had him playing in Iqaluit where you could virtually reach out and touch him in a School Gym of 250 people where the concert was at no charge.  AMAZING!!!!!!

A wonderful concert that Jacquie and I appreciated being able to attend!! 

Thank you to the Natioal Art Centre Orchestra!!

Surprise Trip to Churchill

Rob Aube (a colleague) and I were doing some travelling for work, needing to spend a few days in Rankin Inlet and then travelling to Arviat.  We had to meet a number of clients in each town and everything went well in Rankin Inlet.  We were scheduled to leave Rankin to be in Arviat at noon on Wednesday.   The plane was 2 hours late leaving Rankin and then to our surprise flew over Arviat and on to Churchill. 

Even though we had client appointments in Arviat starting at 1:30PM, it was interesting visiting Churchill.  They have a huge Polar Bear pelt in the airport.

While in the airport I noticed a gentleman selling silver jewelry.  In talking to him, I found out that he makes all of his own jewelry.  He is originally an artist from Montreal and moved from there to Winnipeg and then to Churchill.  I was impressed with the quality of his work and ended up getting my dear wife a little gift from Churchill.  

We didn't know if we were going to need to stay over in Churchhill, however there ended up being a flight back to Rankin Inlet that was given a 50% chance of stopping in Arviat.  So, we decided to take it and sure enough it landed. 

We bid goodbye to Churchill and although the stay was short it was interesting. 

Of course Churchill is known for polar bears and the only one I got to see was in the airport.

With the help of the district staff we were able to reschedule all of the clients we missed on Wednesday afternoon to Thursday.  We arrived in Arviat around super time on Wednesday and we had clients scheduled to 8:00PM.  Overall we had a very productive stay.

The Matchbox Gallery, Rankin Inlet

While I was out wandering around Rankin Inlet today, I happened on a little place called the Matchbox Gallery.  I wish I had taken a picture of the exterior, because its non-assuming, and in fact some might say  in need of a paint job. This is the last place I expected to find what I found,  however once I was inside I was completely blown away. 

The Matchbox Gallery began in 1987 and has turned into one of Nunavut's most innovative and internationally known creative centres.  The founders are Jim and Sue Shirley who came to Rankin Inlet in 1979. 

Since 1990, the Shirley's have worked closely with community-based artists in a ceramics program which is unique to Nunavut and the world at large. 

The work has been exhibited in shows and in institutional and commercial galleries throughout Canada, United States and Europe.   Some of the major exhibitions include shows at the Nunavut Legislative Assembly, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, The Prince of Wales Northern Hertiage Centre, The Museum of Inuit Art in Toronto, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Cerny Collection of Inuit Art in Bern Switzerland and the National Art Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.  In fact many of these places have permanent collections from the Matchbox Gallery in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. 

The detail of the art work is amazing.  Sandy who looks after the Gallery in the summer months while the owners are all over the world at Art Exibitions, gave me a tour of the whole building. (Sandy is in the picture below) There are 2 kilyns where all the firing of the ceramic takes place on site.  There are many displays that are not for sale.  They are being kept for exhibitions and shows like the big show that will take place in Europe next month. 

The artist have also participated in hand-building demonstrations in Canada, the U.S, Iceland and Greenland.  The prices for the art work very from a hundred dollars or so to multi thousands of dollars. As an example the small ceramic faces below cost approx. $125.00

And some of the smaller urns that are on the shelves below are around $100. 

Below is a picture of many of the artists that work at the Matchbox Gallery. 

Sandy gave me a pamphlet that talks about all of the artists and their accomplishments, which are many.  I was amazed and delighted that I stumbled onto the Matchbox. Gallery in Rankin Inlet.  If you would like to find out more, you can go to their website at www.MATCHBOXGALLERY.com 

Hike to Tarr Inlet

On Labour Day Jacquie, 2 friends and I along with the dogs walked to Tarr Inlet.  The walk was far enough from Iqaluit (8-10 KM) that we didn't feel comfortable without a rifle for protection.  We borrowed our friends 273 Rifle just in case we ran into some unfriendly wildlife.

Our friends Lloyd and Monique

We left at approx. 10:30AM and started walking along the eastern side of Frobisher Bay from Apex.  We started by going up into the hills along the side of the bay.  The first hill was quite steep, however once up on top, we were able to walk along the plateau going up and down many hills.  There were beautiful red flowers all along the walk, that looked a lot like a hard wood forest down south.

Near the beginning of our trek we saw a huge fox.  It may have been an arctic fox, however it had the normal red colours with the big bushy tail.  Only it was huge, as far as a fox goes, double the size of any fox I've seen down south. 

The dogs were haveing a great time on the walk and considering they are 13.5 and 9.5 years old and the walk was on very uneven ground, they did a great job.



We walked for about 1.5 hours to the end of Tarr Inlet and then stopped for lunch.  Being my birthday, Monique brought a chocolate cupcake and they put a grape in it to simulate a candle.  It was great.  Jacquie, Lloyd and Monique sang happy birthday - they're amazing singers.  (scared the dogs a little - just saying)

As we headed out on our walk the tide was in and as time went on, the tide receded and we thought we would walk across the tidal flats over to the other side and climb the large hill towards the main part of the Bay.  Because the tide had just receded, the flats hadn't had time to drain.  There were areas that still had a foot or two of water.  We tried many different routes, jumping accross little streams and trying to get across the flats.  After a half hour or so, we decided the only way for us to get across would be to get very wet.  Since it was only about 7C and very windy, we abandoned the idea of crossing the flats, however walked along the eastern side of the flats all the way back to Apex.

While we were trying to find our way across the tidal flats, we found a caribou horn and had a little fun with it. 


The walk back to Apex took about 2 hours.  The wind was blowing at 50km per hour with gusts to 70 km per hour.  It was also quite cool.  The good news is we didn't see any polar bears, although we saw a large number of baby shrimp.  The little pools on the title flats were filled with baby shrimp. 

When we were almost back to Apex, we saw a large block of ice, which the dogs took to licking furiously.  We decided to have a little rest at the block of ice.  I didn't realize until afterwards that I got a pretty wet butt.  It seemed too cold for the ice to melt, but I was wrong. 

The opportunity to trek out to Tarr Inlet was amazing.  The views were simply beautiful!!