Stephanie McDonald
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 3, 2007

IQALUIT - It's easier to ask Joseph Mitsima what he hasn't done, rather than what he has.

Mitsima was born in Iqaluit in 1944 "on a beautiful day." He later discovered that his family didn't suspect he would live, as he was a small baby.

"It's a good thing I had a good great grandmother," he said.

For two years she nurtured and fed him, and helped him live to see many adventures.

He once worked on a trawler boat, turbot fishing off the coast of Greenland. He helped to build a road and airstrip at the Polaris Mine on Little Cornwallis Island. He also worked on the DEW Line "many, many years ago." In the early 1960s, Mitsima took a plumbing course in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

Back in Iqaluit, Mitsima's life is no less busy or exciting. He worked as a translator and interpreter for the hamlet council of Iqaluit, when the city was still at hamlet status. He also translated news stories for a local newspaper, no longer in print. Last year he delivered food to the legislative assembly and other government departments over the lunch hour.

This summer Mitsima is working with Jo Hodgson and Mary Crnkovich in building the rock sculpture gardens around the town, including a performance and meeting space beside NorthMart. He took a course they offered a few years ago and they asked him to come back and work this summer. He works six days a week from 7 a.m. to around 5:30 p.m. The best part of the job is that Mitsima is given a choice of how to arrange the rocks, even though there is the inevitable difference of opinion.

"The first time is always hard. You can't be perfect the first day," he said.

Despite the cold, rainy weather that has been typical of this Iqaluit summer, Mitsima said one only needs a raincoat and warm clothes.

When he isn't outdoors working, he can usually be found making ulus. No one ever taught him how to do it.

"I just watched and tried to do the same," he said.

The first one he ever made fetched him $105, "the biggest prize yet."

Mitsima usually sells his ulus for between $30 and $60, to ensure that people can afford them.

He has enough material to write a book, based on his own experiences and the changes he's witnessed in the burgeoning capital city. Years ago he was encouraged to write his autobiography and he put together a manuscript "this thick," he said, holding his fingers five inches apart. "Moving from house to house, we lost it."