A reunion of laughter and sadness

A recent reunion of elders in Quaqtaq brought back memories and laughter, and left behind a 73-year-old model of a kayak, and, more importantly, a legacy of friendship and pride.

Those attending the reunion included anthropologists Bernard Saladin d’Anglure and Louis-Jacques Dorais; Dr. Harold Burgess, a former doctor at the St. Luke’s Hospital; 90-year old Tamusi Ongirk from Kangirsuk; elders from Kuujjuaq, Aupaluk and Inukjuak; David Wiebe, a former teacher; and Ron Brooman, whose father worked near Quaqtaq in the 1930s.

Some had not been back in the Tuvaaluk region since the 1950s.

They tromped around Nuvuk, the site of the former Cape Hope Advance weather station, and Iggiajaq, once a former camp and Hudson Bay trading post; they exchanged stories and songs, feasted, danced, renewed friendships, which have already endured a lifetime, and looked at hundreds of photos, some 50 years old.

Slide shows included images of several people from that period who are still remembered by their descendents.

“We’d heard of those names, but we’d never seen the people before. It was great,” said Johnny Oovaut, mayor of Quaqtaq.

The reunion, which started on Aug. 12, went “very, very well,” said Oovaut, who also spearheaded the event.

“I want to express my appreciation to all those people who participated and the people of Quaqtaq,” Oovaut said. “I found it wonderful. It revitalized everybody. Those who came here filled an empty void they had felt.”

During the reunion, Tamusi Ongirk revisited Iggiajaq, where he once lived. There, Oovaut’s father, Itittuuq, 78, raced to keep up with the older Tamusi who uses a cane to get around.

“People come alive again when they visit a certain area they grew up in,” Oovaut reflected. “But it was sad for some people.”

The get-together provided a chance for people to reconnect. One woman was looking for “Nujaluarik,” as Harold Burgess, was nicknamed on account of his curly hair. But he had lost his curly hair.

But several elders were finally able to tell Burgess just how much they had appreciated what he had done as a doctor in the region.

Burgess, who had arrived at Cape Hope in 1943 to become a radio operator when he was 19, returned in the 1950s as a physician on the C.D.Howe medical ship and worked at St. Luke’s Hospital in Pangnirtung.

“He said how much he had cared for the Inuit people, that he tried to make it as comfortable as he could. He really loved the Inuit,” Oovaut said.

Burgess related how he had tried to prevent the spread of a measles epidemic, and told about how badly he felt when he had to take people south for medical treatment.

“Some people never came back up North – but some people are still alive, and I guess it’s due to that,” Oovaut said.

One elder recalled how he ate ravens to survive, offering youth an insight into how tough life was 50 years ago.

“They said they could better see how well off we are today compared to then,” Oovaut said.

Returning after many years to Quaqtaq, which now boasts new houses, public buildings and even a heated swimming pool, came as a shock to some.

“Our former teacher Mr. Wiebe was disoriented, because at the time when he was living here, there were very few buildings. When he came here, he saw all these buildings, but he was amazed that his former students could still remember the songs he had taught them 35 years later!”

But Oovaut said Quaqtaq’s prosperity was “what they had hoped Inuit would develop.”

Despite occasional sad moments and surprises, the reunion was also filled with laughter.

Bernard Saladin d’Anglure sang the Inuttitut song he hadn’t understood when he was a young man in Quaqtaq, which mocked him for short temper and skinny legs.

And Louis-Jacques Dorais sang his own song in Inuttitut, which he had written 35 years ago. This song tells about how when he was trying misaraq (fermented seal oil) for the first time, Dorais thought he was ingesting seal urine, because he thought Inuit used every part of animals.

Dorais also told everyone about other misconceptions he once had about Inuit culture.

“I spent a month in a spring camp. There wasn’t anything to wash with. Of course, the Inuit found a way to wash, but I didn’t wash myself at all,” Dorais said in an interview from Quebec City, where he teaches at Université Laval.

The young Dorais also thought it was impolite to refuse food. Each time he entered a tent, people would offer him some food. He wouldn’t refuse it because he didn’t want to offend anyone: he ended up eating five or six meals in one day. So, Dorais acknowledged, Inuit thought he was both dirty and stupid!

The reunion’s participants also discussed names, discovering many common Inuit names are simply Inuttitut versions of English names (such as Eugene, which became Jugini, or English, which became Elashuk).

In collaboration with Saladin d’Anglure and Dorais, Oovaut now wants to compile a database of authentic Inuit names.

“When we went to school we became embarrassed about our Inuit names. Some names are very old – so that’s a big project we plan to do, to collect them. We should have an Inuit baby names book.”

The database would also include information about the names’ history and others who have been called by the same name.

Another research project to record elders’ memory of sacred places in Quaqtaq, Kangiqsujuaq, Sanikiluaq and Igloolik is also in the works.

There are no plans to repeat elders’ reunion, Oovaut said, due to the advanced age of many of the participants, but he said the gathering left everyone in Quaqtaq “resolved to do more to preserve our culture.”