Brent Reaney
Northern News Services

Coppermine (July 11/05) - Peter Akana thinks it's important for youth and elders to communicate.

"I'd like to learn a lot more before my grandpa passes away," he said from his home town of Kugluktuk.

Since he was about 12 years old, Peter and his grandfather John Akana have been going out on the land. Depending on the weather, they may go out about four times a month.

"He teaches me the way you gut the caribou, and the easier way to skin it," said Peter.

The most important lesson might just be "to never be stingy. To give meat to other people," he said.

The unique landscape of the Western Kitikmeot allows the pair to hunt ducks, caribou, or hikhik (ground squirrel), among other things.

With 66-year-old John hard of hearing, Peter has to shout questions at him, often more than once. In mid-May, John was sick but still able to go out when the weather was warm.

When asked what he can learn from Peter, John chooses to emphasize the need for him to teach the young man.

Elders and youth do not talk enough, John says.

He wonders if better communication would have kept a number of the community's youth out of young offender facilities.

This summer John has a camping trip planned for "way far away from here."

"We're going to go duck hunting, and staying out a few days and then come back," John says, before saying to Peter "nothing else."

Once, while camping with his cousin and grandfather, Peter remembers a grizzly bear poking its head into their tent.

"We were lucky we had caribou meat outside our tent," said Peter.

Peter knows some Inuinnaqtun, but would like to learn more. The two often speak in English.

Some of Peter's acquaintances have learned traditional skills, but "some of them hardly go out on the land."

Peter encourages youth who want to learn traditional land and survival skills not to be shy and to get someone to take them out on the land.