Puvirnituq Snow Festival aims to entertain with Bow/Arrow theme

Thirty-four years ago, the Puvirnituq Snow Festival was created to give youths something to look forward to during the year. Now, it is an emblematic celebration for the community.

Ice blocks are placed by the community’s loader on the ice, ready for the sculptors to begin their five-day challenge. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)

This year’s festival began Monday in whiteout conditions, where the snow on top of the ice blended with the sky.

Next to the crowd of about 200 people gathered on the frozen bay were ice blocks that will be carved by sculptors over the course of the five-day event. A parade then followed, with community members making their way to the Satuumavik community centre gymnasium where further activities would take place.

Puvirnituq Mayor Lucy Qalingo remembers the first snow festival, back in 1991. She was about 12 years old.

“The community was trying to come up with something that would give a chance for youth to look forward to,” she said in an interview at her municipal office.

She said that at the time, a suicide “epidemic” had struck the community.

“There was a lot going on, there were a lot of issues that were never addressed,” she said.

“We can’t change the past, we can’t change the trauma [people] went through, but we can be there for the family through these activities.”

Since then, the festival continues to grow, with bands now travelling from Nunavut to perform at the nightly concerts hosted every day of the week.

A snow sculpture depicts a hunter with a bow. The image sets the tone for this year’s theme for the Puvirnituq Snow Festival: “Bow/Arrow.” (Photo by Cedric Gallant)

The festival was held every year at first, but Qalingo said that put a strain on the organizing team and the general enthusiasm from the community went down. With a bi-annual schedule, more time is given to the team to plan and prepare and people attend in flocks.

“When it happens every two years, a lot of people want to come from all over the world,” she said. “It is attractive because we have the only snow festival in Nunavik.”

Every iteration of the Puvirnituq Snow Festival has a theme that dictates the course of the activities during the week. This year it is “Bow/Arrow.”

Ice and snow carving, inuksuk building, dog team races, igloo building and shooting competitions are on the menu for people wishing to participate and maybe win a prize.

Mayor Lucy Qalingo, right, introduces the team organizing this year’s Puvirnituq Snow Festival to the crowd. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)

The activities, especially carving, are there “because they are a part of our culture, our tradition,” Qalingo said. “It keeps them alive.”

This year, artists such as Beatrice Deer, Juurini, Qimutjuit, Young Black Inuk, Jacob Okatsiak and others are expected to fill up the stands at the Satuumavik gymnasium.

On the festival’s first evening, the Aaqsiiq theatre group premiered its first Inuktitut play, Aukkauti, to a packed house.