by Jennifer Pritchett
Northern News Services

RANKIN INLET (Jan 14/98) - Kablu Kabloona has a hearty laugh, unmistakable to those that know her.

One of Rankin Inlet's eldest, Kabloona celebrated her 90th birthday just after midnight on New Year's Day in front of hundreds at the community arena.

The spirited 90-year-old mother to three daughters (two of them adopted) said that the party was quite a time for her, touched by the people who made her birthday so special.

She was particularly moved by the plane ticket she received as a birthday present, compliments of Skyward Aviation. She will use it later this month to visit her grandson, John Kanayuk, and his five children in Arviat.

"I enjoyed the birthday," she said with a smile that lit up her weathered face.

Mary Sigurdson, who provides home care for Kabloona, made her cake for the birthday. "If she was a child, I would put her on my back and keep her safe," she said.

"If I had a really big house, I would care for her 24 hours a day. I really love that old lady."

At 90, Kabloona still enjoys smoking cigarettes and maintains she will never quit, a stance characteristic of a strong-willed nature she's always seemed to have, she said.

Many years ago, she remembers, a priest tried to persuade her to marry again after her first husband died. But Kabloona would have no part of it. "I didn't like him, so I wouldn't marry him despite what the priest said."

Born out on the land in the Keewatin, her strength and independence came at an early age after her mother died, leaving her to roam from family to family. But Kabloona insists she chose to wander from settlement to settlement, often resisting peoples' attempts to keep her in one place.

She can still see herself pretending to pick moss for a fire while she crept away from the camp. A close friend tried to stop her, but she left anyway. She was a wanderer.

"It was great fun years ago -- travelling place to place by myself, going from family to family, mother to mother," she said. "I enjoyed myself. I walked in winter, summer, anytime -- people were amazed that I didn't freeze."

Kabloona said she's lived the kind of life she wants and looks forward to her next adventure, which will bring her to Arviat.