Communities
Federal apology came too late for Arctic exiles
(Gabrielle Zarate/Nunatsiaq News via Vancouver Sun, 11 September 2010) -- GRISE FIORD, Nunavut — Larry Audlaluk wasn’t even three years old when he first saw the narrow stretch of land below high, imposing cliffs — prone to rock slides — that would become home. “There were times when my mother used to be very sad,” Audlaluk said as he recalled the hazy memories of his early childhood in Grise Fiord, on the southern shore of Ellesmere Island. “It was difficult to remember her listening to all the promises that were broken.” The mood was sombre but hopeful on Sept. 10 in Canada’s most northerly community, today home to about 150 people, as representatives of Inuit organizations and the federal government unveiled the second of two monuments to the High Arctic Exiles, this one made by carver Looty Pijamini. Audlaluk has spent much of his adult life lobbying for national recognition of the High Arctic relocation, a quest that culminated in the establishment of permanent monuments in Grise Fiord and Resolute, also in Nunavut, and an official apology from the federal government in August. “I hope this will start a new era of life here,” he said. But the apology came too late for those who most needed to hear it: the original exiles, moved by the federal government from their homes far to the south in Inukjuak, Que., in the mid-1950s. “The people that we are thinking about right now are not with us, they are in the ground right now, resting,” said Grise Fiord’s mayor, Meeka Kiguktak, speaking in Inuktitut. “It would have been better if it had been done 10, 20 years ago,” she said in a later interview.
Posted 12 September 2010; 10:51:55 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Autonomy, Sovereignty and Politics, Canada, Celebrations, Circumpolar News, Communities, September 2010
Arctic-bound mosque makes barge to Inuvik
(CBC News, 10 September 2010) -- A mosque destined for the Arctic is inching closer to its final home in Inuvik, N.W.T., having made it on time to the final barge of the year. The truck transporting the mosque arrived late Thursday in Hay River, N.W.T., where it is expected to be put on the barge around 12 p.m. MT Friday and floated down the Mackenzie River to Inuvik. Built by a Manitoba-based Islamic charity, the mosque has been on a long and challenging road journey since leaving Winnipeg on Sept. 1. Had the mosque missed Friday's barge, it would have had to wait until the river shipping season resumes in June. "Thank God the mosque has arrived safely into Hay River. They arrived right before dark," Hussain Guisti, who heads the Zubaidah Tallab Foundation that raised the money to build and ship the structure, told CBC News late Thursday. "The worst is over, thank God, and it should be on the barge around noon."
Posted 12 September 2010; 9:20:06 PM. Permalink
Tagged: Canada, Circumpolar News, Communities, September 2010, Transportation, Infrastructure and Construction
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