Happiness, youth and ‘the most handsome man’: Kinngait pastor takes Proust Questionnaire

Martha Jaw had a busy year.

Since 2023 she has been the only priest at the only church in Kinngait, the Cape Dorset Full Gospel Church.

The community of about 1,400 residents lost two of its three churches in back-to-back fires in January 2023. After the St. John Anglican and Living Water Church congregations lost their gathering spaces, members often joined Jaw for her Sunday services.

In an interview with Nunatsiaq News in July, she said she doesn’t feel the burden of being the only ordained pastor.

“I don’t try to do it with my own strength. I have to pray about it,” she said at the time.

Jaw recently talked to Nunatsiaq News again, to answer the Proust Questionnaire.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Oh, well, you know different people all over the world, we have different happinesses. I’m just happy to be alive. I guess there’s no real perfect happiness. Our happiness doesn’t last very long on Earth. That’s how I see it.

What is your greatest achievement?

Growing up, I was losing my traditional and cultural style. My greatest achievement is not actually losing it. I got to know my identity as Inuit and being around my mother-in-law, she taught me many things culturally that I did not experience growing up.

What is your greatest regret?

One time, I had a miscarriage. That was years ago, and I still wonder if it was a little girl or a little boy.

What do you most value in your friends?

The fact that I can talk to them, the fact that I can pray with them, you know, like everybody else.

Where would you most like to live?

I love living in Kinngait. I don’t want to live anywhere else.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

Get younger. I’m 74. Everybody says I look younger.

What do you want to change about your appearance?

I don’t want to change my appearance.

Is there a talent that you would like to have?

I want to be well-spoken. I never attended college or university.

When and where were you the happiest?

With my husband. His name was Matthew. He was the most handsome man I ever met. He was 72 when he passed away.

Every couple, wherever you live, when you get a partner, things don’t go right. It just goes smoothly for a while and then, kinda not.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Couples have to work together and communicate and forgive each other and things can get back to normal again.

I want everybody to hear that.

Once in front of God, what would you tell him?

I will tell him all my troubles. And that lifts me up, believing that that help is most precious coming from heaven.

Nunatsiaq News is borrowing the old Proust Questionnaire parlour game to get to know people who are in the news. If you know someone in your community who our readers should get to know by taking this questionnaire, let us know by email: editors@nunatsiaq.com.