Happy fifth, Nunavut

A bright, sunny warm day provided the perfect backdrop for Nunavut’s fifth birthday party on July 9, a civic holiday in the territorial capital.

The legislature building was decked out with bunches of multi-coloured balloons, and Nunavut Premier Paul Okalik was in a similarly cheerful mood as he started the day by cooking up hundreds of pancakes with Nunavut Tunngavik President Paul Kaludjak at the back of the legislative building.

Crowds packed the legislature’s parking lot to line up for breakfast, hot dogs or T-shirts honouring Nunavut Day.

To enter the spirit of the day, many immediately put on their new T-shirts and put Nunavut-flag decals on their cheeks.

Alan Kingdon, who was dressed in flag-coloured clown gear, handed out small Nunavut flags, which several people stuck in their hair as decorations.

Then, to the rousing sound of the visiting RCMP Central Marching Band, a parade featuring Canadian Rangers and former students of the Gordon Robertson Educational Centre in town for a reunion proceeded from the Cadet Hall to Nakasuk School.

In front of the school, Okalik, Kaludjak, Iqaluit Mayor Elisapie Sheutiapik, QIA President Thomassie Alikatuktuk and Jonah Kelly, the master-of-ceremonies, were on hand to meet and greet the parade.

“We have many challenges,” Kaludjak said in his address to the gathering.

Nunavut Day, he said, is a chance for Nunavummiut to look back and ahead to the future, a future that will require hard work if the territory is to develop even more rapidly.

But Kaludjak said Nunavut Day is, above all, a time to celebrate Nunavut’s achievements.

In her welcome, Sheutiapik mentioned several of the “firsts” that have marked Nunavut’s first five years of existence: the first hockey player in the National Hockey League, first hit movie, Atanarjuat, the first crop of graduate nurses and the first female Inuk mayor of Iqaluit.

But fun, not politics, was more the order of the day, as Kelly repeatedly said to the crowd, “Quviassuluta?” and “Are we having a good time?”

“I’m just here to have some fun,” Okalik said to the crowd.

Band music, square dancing, country food, games, a bicycle rodeo and prizes rounded out Nunavut Day’s activities, and by mid-afternoon, the tired party-goers headed home, balloons in hand.