Paddle to the sea: kayak club resurfaces in Iqaluit

Izaac Wilan, left, and Torsten Diesel of the Qajakkut Society stand with contractor Thomas Fitzgerald who is building a new shed on the beach to house the society’s equipment. (PHOTO BY BETH BROWN)

If you live in Iqaluit and you’ve been wondering what’s up with a new shed recently constructed on the beach, you may be pleased to discover that the 30-foot-long building behind the elder’s residence will help support an old tradition.

The shed, which will store kayak and paddling gear, is a project of Iqaluit’s Qajakkut Society.

The group was founded a year ago with a goal to create a sustainable kayak program for the community and to revive the art of building traditional Inuit kayaks.

In the past, youth have often been excited about kayak programs that teach skills but those programs were always temporary one-offs, said Torsten Diesel of the Inuit Heritage Trust, or IHT.

“That’s what we want to change,” Diesel said. “And we want to start a program where the community is involved.”

Diesel is the IHT representative on the society’s five-member board, which also includes a Qikiqtani Inuit Association employee.

The new shack will be filled with equipment previously owned by an Iqaluit kayaking club that ceased operations several years ago.

They society now has a few river kayaks, a sea kayak, flotation devices and wet suits, as well as rescue equipment and safety gear.

And the Qajakkut Society is hoping to get some new equipment by next summer.

But that will depend on funding, Diesel said, which would flow from decisions made at the Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.’s annual general meeting held last week in Cambridge Bay.

“We need equipment because the ocean is scary and cold. We definitely want to go out there well-equipped and also well-trained,” he said.

The group received permission by both the QIA and the City of Iqaluit to use the shoreline land. A local contracting company, Thomas Fitzgerald Construction, is building the storage shed.

Diesel said the location along the beach was chosen, in part, because it wasn’t as rocky as other areas along the shore, and would cause less wear and tear to kayaks launched there.

But the location is also ideal because it is behind the elders’ residence, he said, which will make it easier for the society to encourage future collaborations between elders and youth on traditional kayaking.

The Qajakkut Society built three Greenland-style wood-frame kayaks this summer, with a handful of local youth.

That project was supported by Nunavut’s Department of Culture and Heritage. The IHT hopes to continue that program and make more kayaks with youth this winter.

Izaac Wilman was one of the participants who built a wood-frame kayak this past summer. He’s also on the board of the Qajakkut Society.

Wilman’s new kayak is “tucked away for winter,” but he said that he got lots of use out of the fabric-clad traditional craft this past season.

“My family was proud of me and really happy to see that part of the culture is being revived and still used,” he said.

“It’s a lot lighter and a lot faster,” he said, adding, “we also have plastic kayaks which are a lot more solid and a lot more durable for rocks.”

Wilman has Paddle Canada certification which he completed through the society and he is looking forward to having more certification made available to residents, especially youth.

For now, the kayak shack, the society’s “newest project,” is a great way to help the Qajakkut Society expand, now that it has a home base on the beach, he said.

Once the society has trained more people, it plans to offer kayak programs for the community and have kayak equipment available to use for free, Diesel said.

“It’s supposed to be a community project, so once we have a small group of young adults ready to take over or run the program, we will approach the community on a larger basis to offer programming or invite them for certain programs,” he said.