Jorge Barrara
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Aug 16/00) - On Sept. 30, 1993, Mariah Aliyak picked up the phone and dialled the number of a preacher in Winnipeg.

A friend of the Aliyaks had given her the number. The phone call changed her life. It straightened her back.

"I was bent over," said Aliyak, who works as a drug and alcohol counsellor with Aqsaaraq Addictions in Rankin Inlet.

"My normal height was five feet three inches, but with this burden I was down to five feet. When I let that go I straightened back to five feet three inches."

The burden was her childhood.

"I didn't know I was running away from childhood wounds," said Aliyak, preferring not to explain what those wounds were.

She had always gone to church; her father was a lay-clergy -- a leader in a church who is not ordained.

But it wasn't until that afternoon that she had her first religious experience.

In Christian terms, it's called conversion; an epiphany that causes a lifestyle change.

In March 1994, she decided to volunteer at the Holy Comforter Anglican Church in Rankin Inlet. She became a leader in her parish, helping out Rev. Paul Williams with things like communion, births and funerals, and was eventually elected to the executive board of the diocese.

Before her conversion, Aliyak had maxed her credit cards on psychic hotlines. Now she's a counsellor with the church, and people who need someone to talk to call Aliyak at home and at work.

"I was trying to understand the pain," she said. "(Now) people call me and I go to the church to meet with them, pray and sing hymns."

Rev. Williams took her under his tutelage. He gave her books to read and had her participate in services, reading scriptures in Inuktitut.

Williams said it was important to have Inuit participate in the leadership of the church.

"Most of the priests in Nunavut are Inuit," he said. "It's important that they take the leadership role. This is not about an outsider trying to take things over."

Williams also said Aliyak's commitment was a great help to the church.

"She's doing a marvellous job," said Williams.

The single mother of two children -- the oldest adopted by her sister-in-law -- has a full-time job working as a vital statistics specialist with Nunavut Insurance.

"I'm still learning to balance my family life with my work life with my church life," she said.

Lately, Aliyak hasn't been going to church on Sundays. She's been out on the land.

"On Sundays we gather for a half-hour for services out on the land."

"I need to practice my culture," said Aliyak.

She paralleled her life to that of Jonah, a prophet in the Bible who was swallowed by a whale for three days.

"I was in the belly of the whale for a couple of years and, like Jonah, I eventually found the light," she said.