Ottawa (Feb 26/03) - "I was born in an iglu in Naujaat (Repulse Bay)," said Jose Kusugak, matter-of-factly explaining how different was the world he sprang into compared to what Nunavut is today.

Jose Kusugak - NNSL Photo

"At one time I thought there were only two white people in the world: the Hudson's Bay factor and the priest," the president of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami said to Ottawa-area students, Feb. 7, attending a seminar on contemporary Arctic issues at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

"Then more people came on airplanes. We called them at that time 'the Big Hellos' because they'd always go around and say 'hello-o-o' to us," he said, using a deep voice to mimic the English-speaking adult newcomers.

That first meeting also prompted Kusugak's father to tell him two words of English.

"The Big Hellos always said 'Hello, little boy, how are you,' so I was told to say in English: 'Fine.'

"And then the Big Hellos would ask me 'how old are you little boy' and I'd say 'five.' But the two questions -- and the answers -- sounded the same to me so it was a bit of a guessing game to know which word to use," Kusugak said to laughter from the audience.

Soon, a young priest started teaching English to the children of Repulse Bay, but using Southern books to illustrate English words.

"He showed us the weirdest dog in the world, named 'Spot.' Apparently it was a Big Hello's dog and they talked in a different language from our husky dogs.

"Our dogs never went 'bow-wow', and every girl was called 'Jane' and every boy was called 'Dick'," Kusugak recalled.

But then it came time to go to leave Repulse Bay for a larger, residential school in Chesterfield Inlet.

"Then when the teacher showed us a picture of a male and asked us who is this? I had learned a lot of English in Repulse Bay, so I immediately said: 'oh, Dick! Dick!'," Kusugak said.

But the teacher had other ideas.

"No, no, no: it's a 'boy'," Kusugak says the teacher replied. "Wow, I thought, they must speak a whole different dialect in Chesterfield Inlet!"

Traditional housing had its practical aspects, Kusugak told students.

Traditional iglu are built either on sea ice or lake ice, Kusugak said.

Being on sea ice was a wise move. "It is so much warmer to live in an iglu built on sea ice because of the latent heat from the water below the ice," he explained.

This practical way caused problems when land claims negotiations were started.

"The federal negotiators wondered how we could say we occupied so much land when they found no proofs we were there," Kusugak said.

"One of our elders told them to get into some scuba gear and to find proof in the sea," Kusugak said, noting how a community's "evidence" of fires and wastes would disappear when the ice melted.

Case closed.