Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (May 31/99) - In 1955, Rev. Mike Gardener and his soon-to-be bride stepped off a boat from England and began an adventure that would still be going strong nearly 50 years later.

News/North caught up with the Anglican minister in a house filled with sealskin and maturing tomato plants. Gardener spoke about the path his life has taken since moving to Baffin Island.

News/North: What was your first posting in the Arctic?

Gardener: My wife Margaret and I both came from England in 1955, but we weren't married then and she went to Pannirtuuq to work at the hospital as a cook and I came to Kimmirut as my first posting.

News/North: And you were already a minister when you came?

Gardener: Yes, I was ordained with the Anglican Church. That's why I came.

News/North: What was it like in 1955 in Kimmirut?

Gardener: It was more advanced than we thought. When we were in England, we didn't know what we were going to go to. There were several houses, the Hudson Bay Company, the police, a tiny nursing station and the mission. They were the only permanent people living there throughout the year. Everyone else was living in small isolated camps spread along the coast past Cape Dorset and beyond.

News/North: How were you received by people when you arrived?

Gardener: I felt that they welcomed me and I soon started to feel very much a part of the community -- the small community in Kimmirut. And I was getting to know the others in the camps by visiting them by dog team. I got a great welcome there. I made a point of staying a day or two in each camp and I got to know the people and have services and do what teaching I could in the limited Inuktitut I knew.

News/North: Were people interested to learn about Christianity at that point?

Gardener: I found them very interested to know (about Christianity).

News/North: Did people already have a grasp on this idea of God?

Gardener: Indeed. It's been taught on Baffin Island by some Qallunnaat and a lot of Inuit for more than a 100 years. It's nothing new.

News/North: Did you encounter much shamanism?

Gardener: None wherever we were, but this part of Baffin Island may be different from other parts. The opposition had sort of come and gone on South Baffin Island. One hundred years ago, yes, there would have been a lot of opposition, but it was overcome in quite a drastic way.

News/North: What do you mean by opposition?

Gardener: Shamans opposing the so-called new teaching because they wanted the old ways. Those who were the opposing shamans mostly, in the end, became Christian.

News/North: What do you mean that it was overcome in quite a drastic way?

Gardener: I mean that the first missionaries left the people with their own free will, but there was not much grey area allowed. Things connected with paganism, people were encouraged to drop. As an example, there's a very old lady who lives in Pannirtuuq and she told me that she wanted to know about what went on in the past, but her mother would not tell her. The mother wanted her to be completely cut off from what she called, not the missionaries, but what the mother called the bad pre-Christian ways because of the taboos.

News/North: So it wasn't so much just the Anglican Church guiding people towards Christianity?

Gardener: No, it was very much from the Inuit and that's the point that has been missed so much. The Inuit were really the leaders of the Christian movement and because it was very much from the Inuit, that's why it's so strong.

News/North: When did your Inuktitut start to get better?

Gardener: I'm always trying to catch up on my Inuktitut and trying to understand, but I don't find too much difficulty either hearing it or speaking it.

News/North: When did you first realize that you were getting an understanding of the language?

Gardener: About after a year, I started to understand it, but it was five years before I felt more comfortable and I've been carrying on ever since.

News/North: When did you and Margaret marry?

Gardener: She was there for one year in Pannirtuuq and I was in Kimmirut and we came here to Iqaluit by boat to get married. We can see where we were married every day from our livingroom window. Right out there on the C.D. Howe. It was on boat in those days because, in 1956, there was not a proper church in Iqaluit. We thought it was more suitable for a wedding and more romantic. Then she and I were flown eventually by the (United States Air Force) to Kimmirut after a brief honeymoon in Apex.

News/North: Then you moved back to Kimmirut?

Gardener: Yes, until 1960 and then I went to go on a holiday to England with my wife and I hitched a ride on a boat or two. We both came back in 1961 to Cape Dorset. We were there for 10 years and then we were transferred to Pannirtuuq because the bishop wanted to open a training school for Inuit clergy. I did that for four or five years. That was until 1981, when we came here to Iqaluit. We've been here ever since.

News/North: Are you retired now?

Gardener: I retired in 1996. I've been retired for three years, but we want to be part of things although we don't do the organization and we're not on-call during the night like we used to be.

News/North: Why has your church been so successful when, in recent years, we've heard about so many problems related to the Roman Catholic Church, problems with the residential schools and abuse?

Gardener: That's a very hard question. I don't know why it should be like that. I know the Anglican Church has problems as well. Speaking for Iqaluit alone, we've been blessed with a lot of good people working together and that's why we've been able to go ahead in a positive way. I'm sure the Roman Catholics do the same. The residential schools have dragged the whole lot down. I always say it's wrong to judge just because of mistakes. If we hear of car accidents, that doesn't stop me from getting into a car.

News/North: In the last four decades you've been living here, you must have seen a lot of hardships and pain. Have you ever felt your faith waiver or seen something so painful, it caused you to question your beliefs?

Gardener: The hardest thing is when people who are completely innocent are the victims, when they die or have cancer. That's the very hardest test of faith. You can only say that you cannot understand every little detail. If you could understand God that way, it would make me have a God that's too small. But I can indeed be depressed. If I had only looked at the bad things, I would have given up years ago. I've seen terrible things -- people who've just committed suicide and grieving families in the middle of the night and drunks, alcoholics and drug problems and marriage break-ups and hate and violence. But there is hope and life beyond all that.

News/North: Have you always known that this is your path?

Gardener: Since I was 12 years old. I went to an ordinary school and they had daily assemblies of prayer and a short talk by the principal. One day, he talked about missionary work and going to places. Somehow that hit my heart and I said "OK God, I'll go as a missionary as well, but don't take me where it's hot. I'll go where it's cold." I couldn't ever get that out of my mind. It was very hard to try and explain that to people when I was a teenager. I was not always encouraged.

News/North: Do you have any regrets in your life?

Gardener: No, if I had the choice, I would still choose the same route. There are no regrets at all, only thankfulness. I regret that I can't sing, but for those that can be remedied, I know of nothing. I wish I could go back a bit in time and have a chance to be with people and deal with things still.