How to pluck a goose, with Nunavut Parks
Organization launches summer of Learn To… events Tuesday at Sylvia Grinnell park
Kiersten Williams, left, and Ashley Cooper show how to pluck geese Tuesday during this year’s first Learn To… event hosted by Nunavut Parks. People gathered for the tutorial at the Silvia Grinnell Territorial Park pavilion. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
First, cut off the tail and wings. Then boil to soften the skin and start plucking with short tugging motions.
About a dozen people in Iqaluit used this technique to pluck 14 geese at a Learn To… event hosted Tuesday by Nunavut Parks outside the Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park pavilion on Tuesday.
The goose-plucking tutorial was conducted by Kiersten Williams, who first joined Nunavut Parks in 2023 as a summer student while studying in Ottawa at Algonquin College’s esthetics program.
She moved back home to Iqaluit in December and got a full-time job with Nunavut Parks in February.
“Instead of plucking eyebrows, you ended up plucking geese,” said Ashley Cooper, acting manager for heritage appreciation with Nunavut Parks, while Williams prepared another goose for the procedure with her traditional ulu knife.
Cooper and Williams were two of the four organizers of this year’s Learn To… events along with their summer student employees Eden Aglukark and Jasmine Evic-Lem.
Goose-plucking was the first of a series of 20 events planned for the summer. Others include tutorials on how to clean a sealskin, throat sing, drum dance and more.
A local Iqaluit hunter caught the geese last week for Tuesday’s session and Nunavut Parks will give all the freshly plucked geese to the Elder’s Qammaq and the Qajuqturvik Community Food Centre, so that “nothing goes to waste,” Cooper said.
“It’s that time of year that people are hunting geese and so it fits nicely with our climate and our culture,” she said.
Locals were eager to help. Cheick Cisse looked after the fire and helped the organizers with boiling the geese before plucking.
“I always participate,” Cisse said. “Whenever I can, I come out and learn new things and this seemed like a great opportunity.”
Among participants were two patients of the Akausisarvik Mental Health Treatment Centre who were invited by Nunavut Parks and accompanied by their life skills worker, Jesse Knowles.
This was an opportunity for them to “break the day, spend time on the land and socialize,” Knowles said.
There are Learn To… events scheduled in Rankin Inlet and Kugluktuk, with activities like beading and making embroidered slippers.
The full calendar of events is available on the Nunavut Parks website, along with information about how to register.
Some workshops, such as how to run a dog team or how to clean a sealskin, are appropriate for participants aged 16 or older and have limited spaces.
All the events are free.
This group of Nunavut Parks employees organized the goose-plucking event Tuesday at Sylvia Grinnell Park. From left are Eden Aglukark, Ashley Cooper, Jasmine Evic-Lem, and Kiersten Williams. (Photo by Arty Sarkisian)
Excellent story and so great to see these young ladies help preserve part of the Inuit culture. This is living proof that these young ladies learned about their culture from their families. It’s important we acknowledge this and continue to promote it.
Have a great summer with your projects ladies, you are a great team with a awesome leader. Enjoy and have fun.