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Trevor Thrasher
Northern News Services
Published Monday, July 28, 2008

INUVIK - Around the first of July I asked the youth centre if there was a whaling camp this year and they gave me a form for my mom to fill out. We left to go to the camp on July 8.

Karen Tingmiak and Natasha Rogers took me up there. They work at the Inuvik Community Corporation.

Brandon Cockney and Trevor Thrasher help split wood for the fire. - photo courtesy of Trevor Thrasher

We went there by boat. There were five people in the boat. We left Inuvik around two in the afternoon and got there by five. It took about four hours to get there. The weather was nice that day. It was really warm but the water was cold.

There are about six or seven cabins on Kendall Island. As soon as we got there we put our stuff in the tent and then we played around. There were 17 people at the camp. The tent was from the Fort McPherson tent and canvas shop. I slept in the tent and then I had to move into a cabin because it was too cold in the tent. They didn't have a stove in there.

It was hard to get used to the light all the time. When we were sleeping in the cabin they put blankets over the doors and windows to make it dark. Eileen, the one who owned the cabin, she made everybody stay quiet when it was night.

In the day we played badminton and we would go swimming when the water was warm. We got our drinking water from a small pond. Every time we needed water we went there because that water was clean. We had big water buckets. I could carry two full buckets at a time.

ICC provided the food. It was mostly regular stuff. One day I had oats for breakfast. At lunch we roasted hotdogs. For supper we had chili. People who wanted to do the dishes would help out. I didn't help with the dishes though. I helped with getting water and wood. I also helped chop wood.

We went across to the other side of Kendall island to get wood. We would bring it around to the camp by boat. There were a lot of "bulldog" flies around when we were in the boat but they didn't bite us.

Kendall Island has lots of small trees, but not many big ones. There is an old church there. It was built like a log cabin but there is no roof left on it. They said that people used to go to church there but people stopped going because the church was falling apart. Natasha Rogers said there was a little girl who died in the church. They say if you go there at night time you can hear her stirring her tea. We stayed away from there.

Hank Rogers, Brandon Cockney, Desmond Rogers and Gary Harley took me out in the whaling boat. I wore a life-jacket to be safe. The first time we went out a beluga popped his head out of the water right beside me.

Three days before we came home we got a whale. It was a 13-foot-long beluga. They have a harpoon with a sort of orange balloon at the back. It is made out of rubber and it floats. They throw the harpoon at the whale and the balloon keeps it up. If it keeps moving after five minutes they shoot the whale with a gun. Then we dragged it back behind the boat. The whale we got was a female.

As soon as they got the whale back they measured it. Then they cut the head off and they cut the body into pieces about two or three feet long. Almost all the elders helped cut it up.

They made dry meat with the meat and they made muktuk with whale fat and the skin. I had some muktuk, and I brought some back for my friend. This was my first year whaling. I liked learning about the culture. I like to go out on the land. I think I'm going to go out again next year.