The Labour Day Weekend

Anna Desgagnes. September 5, 2015

The first week of September was a busy time for everyone at Inuujaq School.  It was the fourth week of the academic year, and the warm days of summer were well behind us.  The routines were now in place and the teachers were immersed in the instruction of their students.  I also had recess duty that week.  My area of supervision was the high school section.  My tasks included: preventing physical confrontations, making sure the students finished their cigarettes before going back inside, and herding the students inside when the bell rang.  I'm happy to report that no fights took place that week.

            

My Grade 10 Social Studies students were deep in their study of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement (NLCA).  The module is organized into three time periods: traditional Inuit life before European contact, the transitional era (1950s - 1970s), and the modern era (1980s onwards).  (The NLCA negotiations took place between the 1970s & early 1990s).  By the end of the first week, my students had reviewed what life was like for the Inuit out on the land, and their treatment by the Europeans during the first half of the 20th century.  In short, the treatment was not very good.  I was glad that the new textbooks I ordered included similar information on the topic and I included them in my lessons.  My students learned new words such as marginalization, empowerment, disempowerment, assimilation, and hierarchy.

            

My Grade 11 Social Studies students were finished with their study of the Industrial Revolution in Britain and were now looking at European imperialism all over the world.  A new word they learned was Eurocentrism.  Naturally, the new textbooks I ordered also included interesting content on this topic and I included it in my lessons.  The new content focused on European imperialist policies in North America.  My students were particularly interested in slavery in America.  They were surprised to learn that the Hudson Bay Company used to own much of the land north of the 49th parallel (aka Rupert's Land) before selling it to the Dominion of Canada for £300,000 in 1869.  That would be around £29,000,000 today. 

            

My drummers are improving their handling of the actual drums and enjoy playing the required rhythms.  I'm still working on getting them to control their volume.  Beginner drummers always think that playing louder makes them better drummers but that's not the case.  They were very excited when I handed out their first performance piece for the Halloween concert in October.  The challenge for the next several weeks is to get them playing more complicated rhythms as a team.     

            

The Labour Day Weekend was the first three-day weekend of the school year.  For everyone down south, it was the last weekend before the beginning of school.  Everyone here had made plans of some kind to make the most of the extra day off school.

            

Anna Desgagnes

Tugboat & barge.

The long weekend began with the arrival of the second sealift vessel, the Anna Degagnés.  The large ship, owned by Transport Desgagnés Inc., is a "multipurpose vessel equipped with crane[s] capable of lifting up to 125 tons."  It's been delivering much needed supplies to Arctic Bay for many years.  The ship was anchored in the bay on the morning of Saturday, September 5th and the crew was using a tugboat & barge to bring supplies ashore.  A large portion of the supplies were building materials needed for the new health centre.  The construction company had also ordered several large vehicles for the project, such as a crane, a loader, and dump trucks.  They even brought up a small school bus to ferry the workers to and from the construction site.  The Anna Degagnés also brought up food supplies ordered by the local Co-op store.  The staff would be busy for the next several days.

            

The construction crane at the new health centre location was fully extended on Saturday as I walked towards the town centre.  In a way, the crane was now the tallest "structure" in town.  I took several pictures of the site before I continued walking to the Uquutaq Centre (Anglican church).  The staff & cadets of 3045 Army Cadet Corps were going to be cleaning up the shoreline behind the airport as part of their community service.  We would be meeting at the church first for breakfast, followed by a briefing.  The wind was strong that day and as I neared the church, I wondered whether the event might get cancelled.

            

Uquutaq Centre (Anglican Church)

Breakfast was prepared by a parent volunteer.  He prepared delicious egg muffins with ham.  The cadets ate around a table while the adult staff discussed the weather.  In the end, we decided to postpone the clean up until the following Saturday because of strong wind.  The forecast called for winds of up to 40km/h at the airport.  At least everyone got a free breakfast.

           

Gestetner 420

Lt. May showed me a vintage Gestener 420 duplicating machine that the church still had in its possession.  The device is named after Hungarian inventor David Gestetner.  The church used the device to mass print paper copies of hymns and newsletters in Inuktitut.  The machine predates the modern photocopier.  Unfortunately, the device was no longer workable.           

            

King George V Mountain (KGVM)

I joined two teachers on an afternoon hike up King George V Mountain (KGVM).  The last time I visited the peak was in March.  My two coworkers were Jean-Francois (JF) and Greg.  JF brought along his puppy for the hike.  He had already hiked the mountain several weeks before.  This would be Greg's first time ascending the mountain.  I brought my 12-guage shotgun with me because we were told that a polar bear had been spotted near the mountain a few days before.  I was packing 15 slugs and 5 bear banger shells.  We almost decided not to go through with the hike because of the strong winds and overcast clouds.  However, we went anyway, believing that the weather would clear up by the time we reached the summit. 

            

JF & I walking towards KGVM.  Picture taken by Greg.

Victor Bay.

We left the borrowed SUV near the community's waste disposal facility (aka garbage dump) and began our trek up the mountain.  We followed the small valley on the left side of KGVM.  This valley turns into a skidoo trail during the winter months.  During the summer months, the ground is wet because of snowmelt.  Streams are formed and green vegetation, like moss & grass, grow.  We reached the top of the crown at around 2:30pm.  We could see Arctic Bay, Victor Bay, and the Sewage Lagoon.  I photographed Victor Bay, making sure I got the iceberg and cabins on camera.

            

Cabins and an iceberg at Victor Bay.

Me standing next to the hoodoo.
Picture taken by JF.

I gave my camera to JF so that he could take pictures of me standing next to a tall sandstone rock hoodoo I previously visited in 2013.  I crossed a narrow rocky ledge and climbed up to the hoodoo.  JF's puppy followed me and did the same without any difficulty.  Greg also took several pictures with his expensive Nikon camera.

            

We continued our hike by walking over to the centre of KGVM to get a better view of Arctic Bay.  One of the main reasons I wanted to do the hike was to take a grand landscape picture of the community with the Anna Desgagnés in the frame.  As I've previously mentioned, the KGVM summit is a rocky plateau.  You can build an entire town on top of the mountain but you would have to spend a lot of time & money removing all the loose rocks.

           

September 5, 2015

The Anna Desgagnes anchored in Arctic Bay. September 5, 2015.

There was still overcast clouds over Arctic Bay, but there was enough sunlight to take good pictures.  I was surprised by how far out in the bay the Anna Desgagnés was anchored.  It looked much closer when I was looking from the shoreline.  We celebrated our ascent with a batch of cookies that JF had baked and brought along. 

            

We slowly walked down to the ledge where a large & tall inukshuk stood.  I explained to JF & Greg that this was the spot where I did my extreme ironing in April 2014.  We took pictures of JF's puppy sitting on top of the inukshuk.  Several minutes later, a flock of ravens that had been playing in the sky flew down to get a closer look at the puppy.  They hovered pretty close but chose not to land on the ledge.  The puppy looked bemused.  I filmed a short clip of the moment.

            

Arctic cotton

We headed back the way we came after staying at the summit for around 45 minutes.  The descent was easier on our legs & muscles.  On our way down, we photographed the moss in the valley and a small collection of arctic cotton plants.  The last photo I took was of a Christmas Tree planted next to the road to the Sewage Lagoon.

            

JF & Greg

Overall, the hike up KGVM was a success and Greg was glad that he could now say that he had scaled the mountain.  I was grateful for the weather not turning, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get a picture of the sealift vessel.  And we were all thankful that we didn't meet a polar bear along the way.    

Planted Christmas Tree