Qajuqturvik hopes to start country food festival with a ‘bang,’ says centre’s leader

The Qajuqturvik Community Food Centre in Iqaluit is preparing to roll out its first ever Country Food Festival.

The first of six meals offered during the weeklong event will be served Sunday, with two seatings of 60 people. Laakkuluk Williamson will curate and prepare the opening-day menu, which will feature inuksiut, or traditional food, from Nunavut and Kalaallit Nunaat, or Greenland.

On Monday, Laakkuluk Williamson will serve a variety of inuksiut from Kalaallit Nunaat, or Greenland, including smoked Maktaaq and dried fish. (Photo by Lilli Akpaleeapik)

The menu was inspired by Williamson’s continuous travel back and forth between her two homelands, Greenland and Nunavut.

“I’m very passionate about making sure that country food is part of our everyday experience as Inuit,” she said Wednesday in an interview at the food centre. “It’s wonderful to be able to show solidarity, that we have one culture, one language, through the food that we are having.”

Sunday’s plates will be filled with pitsi, or dried fish; maktaaq; uujuq, or stewed meat; and roasted tukuminiq, or caribou meat with gravy. To top it off will be a dessert of baked goods, applesauce and whipping cream topped with paurngait, or crow berries, and aqpiit, or cloudberries.

“We wanted to take a full week to really put the focus on country food and start off with a bang, with a very exciting experience of a bunch of ways of doing country food in one meal,” said Joseph Murdoch-Flowers, executive director of Qajuqturvik Community Food Centre.

The food centre has operated in the city since the 1990s, providing a free lunch service on weekdays. It also hosts the weekly Quaq Corner, during which elders enjoy quaq, or frozen meat, together.

Most recently, the centre hosted a Pizza Palooza event on Oct. 3.

Qajuqturvik also encourages cultural practices such as hunting through partnerships that supply cultural foods through Qinnirvik, the centre’s country food store.

Sunday’s feast is a free event. People can visit the centre day of between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. for their chance to get a ticket. The first seating is scheduled for 5 p.m., and the second is at 7 p.m.

The centre is providing tickets for crowd control, said Murdoch-Flowers.

“We have made it free so that it is very low-barrier, but you do have to show up to get the ticket and then come eat,” he said.

Lunches served for the rest of the festival, which ends Nov. 6, are free as well.