Carolyn Sloan
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 29, 2008

IKALUKTUTIAK/CAMBRIDGE BAY - It was like hide-and-go-seek, archaeology style.

Youth enrolled in a day camp this past summer in Cambridge Bay went out on the land to dig up animal bones archaeologist Max Friesen and his team had placed underground.

Using the tools of the trade, such as sifters and masonry trowels, the children learned how archaeologists explore the world below.

"There were caribou bones, fish bones and muskox bones," said eight-year old Violet Avalak. "We put dirt on it (a sieve) and we took turns pushing it around."

Best of all, the youth got to keep the bones that they had found.

"I found some and I still have them at home," said Jenita Atatahak, 14. "They are tuktu bones."

Along with the bones she had dug up, she also came home with an interest in archaeology as a profession.

"It would be awesome," said Atatahak, adding she would love to work in other parts of the world.

In addition to providing a camp for the kids, Friesen gave older youth hands-on experience with the excavations he had been doing as part of his own research.

During the field season, local students, including high school students, join a group of elders, translators, interviewers, hunters and archaeologists on a journey to Iqaluktuuq, about 60 kilometres from Cambridge Bay, for an elders' traditional knowledge camp. After the camp, the Inuit students stay behind to help archaeologists excavate the sites for several more weeks.

With help from the students and elders, Friesen and his team of archaeologists are able to link traditional knowledge with the sites and artifacts they find in the area.

It's part of a project that began in 1999 as a partnership between the Kitikmeot Heritage Society and the University of Toronto.

"The research is intended to provide a number of direct benefits to the community," said Friesen. "Probably most importantly, we have recorded extensive traditional knowledge in several different areas identified by Cambridge Bay elders as important. Secondly, the archaeology has been worked into a museum display in the cultural centre in Cambridge Bay. And third, over the years, over 15 local students have gained experience in archaeology."

The area around Cambridge Bay holds particular interest for the archaeologists given its historical importance to the Inuit.

"(Because Iqaluktuuq) contains a river with a huge annual Arctic char run, as well as a major caribou crossing, it has been a central place for people living in the region for thousands of years," Friesen said. "I wanted to see how ancient lifeways changed over time, eventually leading to the very successful modern Inuit lifeway."