Yesterday’s News: Would Iqaluit revive its liquor store and museum society?

It was the week of June 30, 1976, and all sorts of plans were brewing in Frobisher Bay.

First, a group of residents made history — or rather, they saved history — by reviving a museum society with a plan to eventually display artifacts from the eastern Arctic.

Meanwhile, another group was discussing starting a petition on the possibility of reopening the local liquor store, with controls on purchasing.

Once a week throughout the year, Nunatsiaq News is looking back at some of the front pages from the past half-century as the paper celebrates 50 years of serving Nunavut.

Nunatsiaq News was originally published as the Inukshuk community newsletter in Frobisher Bay (now Iqaluit) and sold in 1976 with the name it has today.

As this edition’s front-page story notes, the old museum society had a short but active history.

The Nunatta Sunakkutaangit (Things from the Land) Society came together in 1968 and within two years had bought more than 300 carvings and collected artifacts like kudliks, kamotiks and skin tents.

It had a collection ready to be viewed by Queen Elizabeth when she visited in 1970, but no permanent home to store it all in. By late 1970 the museum society had faded away and its collections were put in storage.

By June 1976 the only board member still around, Helen Webster, was eager to revive the museum society and organized a public meeting.

Today, of course, the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum near Iqaluit’s waterfront is open to the public displaying artwork and artifacts and providing historical books, photos and other resource materials.

Flashback again to the week of June 30, 1976, and to a public meeting about possibly allowing the sale of liquor in the city again.

From the reporting, it appears people’s positions were fairly firm on both sides of the debate.

“Fighting words” were thrown about, according to one participant.

In the end, the only decision agreed on was to circulate a newsletter explaining the group’s opinions and reviewing what had happened at meetings so far.

In the end, the ban on beer and liquor sales in Iqaluit remained in place until 2014.