Nunavut students return wiser, more worldly, from European tour

Mia Otokiak said her eyes filled with tears at a concentration camp grave site in Holland after learning that children, some just infants, were taken from their parents and sent to another camp to be killed. (PHOTO BY PATTI BLIGH)

Students from Kiilinik High School in Cambridge Bay, along with teachers and chaperones, pose in front of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France during a recent two-week trip to Europe. (PHOTO BY PATTI BLIGH)

Special to Nunatsiaq News

CAMBRIDGE BAY — From Cambridge Bay, to Alberta, to Paris, to Brussels, to Amsterdam and back again.

A group of 29 Cambridge Bay residents including 16 high school students and 13 chaperones, made that round trip from March 29 to April 13.

“They realized that the world is so big and our students represented their hometown and Nunavut so well,” said Patti Bligh, a high school teacher and the trip’s organizer. “You get a much better sense of the world when you travel. The kids were great. We all had a really good time.”

But it wasn’t all fun and games.

“They all absorbed so much,” said Bligh, who added even climbing a tree in Amsterdam was out of the ordinary since there are no trees at home. “They listened to everything, they were very respectful of everything.”

The group began their journey in Ponoka, Alta., where they met a pair of World War II veterans in honour of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Holland.

“The men we met were from the Air Force,” said Alysha Maksagak, a Grade 10 student at Kiilinik High School. Their stories were good, I enjoyed what they told me, and listening to them.”

The veterans, who were both in their 90s, are originally from Holland — both lived through the Nazi regime.

“We got to learn so much more about the history of Holland and some told stories of Nazis and hiding people and how hard it was and you really get a deeper understanding of how it must have felt for them back then,” said Mia Otokiak, a recent graduate from Kiilinik.

“It was really touching, I really appreciated them taking their own time to tell those stories.”

Visiting these families gave the students’ a new perspective on their upcoming European adventure.

“We went to the concentration camp in Holland. It wasn’t my favourite part but it was definitely the most powerful part of trip,” said Maksagak.

Otokiak remembers her eyes filling with tears during the tour as she heard stories about what happened there. She agrees it was one of the most powerful experiences of the trip.

“We were learning a lot of how it was run and during the tour there was a memorial for 1,200 children from zero to 16 years old who were sent to another camp without their parents and the Nazis had told their parents that they were being sent to a better place but were actually being sent to the other camp to be killed,” Otokiak said.

“It really got to me,” she continued. “Just reading the name of a six-month-old baby who got sent away without their parents, hurt, and I couldn’t help but cry over those 1,200 children who were sent off.”

The students’ travels took them elsewhere through history as well.

“Personally, my favourite place had to have been the Anne Frank house because Patti [had] made us read Anne Frank’s diary — and it really moved me,” said Otokiak. “The house gave me a whole new perspective of her experience there.”

Bligh said one of the most powerful moments for the group was when they visited the mass grave sites in Ypres, Belgium, and the memorial to missing solders at the Menin Gate.

“We laid cards, we put poppies down, we wanted them to have a piece of Canada, and we wanted them to know Canada remembers them,” she said. “There wasn’t a dry in the place.”

Every night of the year, there is a ceremony where a wreath is laid in dedication to the British and Commonwealth soldiers of World War I.

“I heard of the opportunity to lay a wreath. I couldn’t say no because it is a great way to show respect to those who have no known grave,” said Otokiak, who’s now been on two of the four European trips organized through her Cambridge Bay high school.

But of course it wouldn’t be a high school field trip without the odd mishap.

“Well, it is funny to me now, but then I was scared out of my mind,” said Otokiak, recalling a moment where she found herself left behind in a Paris restaurant.

After using some broken French to explain to the restaurant manager what had happened, he tried to contact her hotel. About 10 minutes later, someone arrived to pick her up.

Each trip is rounded off by visiting a Canadian university campus to help inspire the students to continue their education. This year, students spent a day at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

“It was a great experience to see how big they are and see the campuses. I want to go to Dalhousie University but it was good to get an idea of the schools,” said Maksagak.

The total cost of the trip came to about $70,000 which students raised over the two-year period prior to departure through bingos, auctions and something they called Café Europa every Friday — a café in the high school where they sell coffee and baked goods.

Fundraising for the 2017 European trip began shortly after the group returned home.