Sanikiluaq (Apr 04/05) - Twenty-five elders from Pond Inlet and a roomful of elders and members of the Inuit Heritage Trust gathered around television screens to talk to each other about artifacts and the old ways in Inuktitut via a recent video conference.

"It was great. They were so attentive and focused," said John Jamieson, principal of Nuiyak School in Sanikiluaq who attended the video conference in Sanikiluaq held in the community's media centre.

"They really liked the eider duck clothing that our elders were showing them," he said of the Pond elders. "And the eider duck slippers. They loved those. Up island they don't use birds like we use birds."

The Sanikiluaq elders held up a strange three-sectioned white bag at one point during the hour-long session that caused quite a bit of talk.

"It was used at the Trading Post," explained Dina Kavik in Sanikiluaq. "The white men would give it to us. It contained flour, oatmeal, and loose tea on top. It was shared with the whole camp."

Overall, both groups of elders from the far reaches of Nunavut discovered they had enjoyed similar lifestyles, except for the caribou skins which the Sanikiluaq people did not have in their part of the world.

"We had eider skins," explained Kavik.

The elders also talked about how back in the old days no young person would ever address an elder by their first name.

"They would use just "aunt, or "uncle," never the first name like you hear today," said Kavik.

There were no emotional tears this time, like you can have at some video-conference sessions.

"There was lots of laughter," said Jamieson. "Distant cousins seeing each other."