.

Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

IKALUKTUTIAK/CAMBRIDGE BAY - Mabel Etegik may be modest, but when it comes to making people laugh, she’s the local expert.

“She makes me laugh, this woman!” said Mary Avalak, a fellow sewing instructor, when asked to describe her friend.

Sewing instructor Mabel Etegik and her fellow elders received a visit from Nunavut's songbird Susan Aglukark, who dropped by the cultural centre in Cambridge Bay during the ladies’ sewing group session to say hello. From left, Mary Kilaodluk, Susan Aglukark, Mary Avalak, Mabel Etegik, and Lena Kamoayok. - photo courtesy of Karen Mackenzie

“She’s one of the kindest and funniest people I have ever met,” added Renee Krucas, programs manager for the Kitikmeot Heritage Society. “She makes all of us laugh every single day and she makes coming into work so much fun.

“She’ll get up and start dancing or doing impersonations if things get too quiet. There are moments where we actually laugh until we cry.”

Etegik was born in 1943 in Kuugjuaq, or Perry River, southeast of Victoria Island, with the Inuinnaqtun name Pongok.

“It was fun for me,” she said, describing her childhood.

She said she used to play outside with her two sisters and five brothers, often helping her mother, Ada, and going hunting with her father, Joe.

“I always went hunting with my dad,” she said. “He was tall like me. I watched him and when he caught the tuktu, us kids would pack the fresh skins on our backs with the legs dangling down.”

In those days, Etegik had long hair running down her back, which she has since exchanged for a short bob. She wore pants, a parka, mitts and kamiks made of caribou, and used sealskin kamiks with no hair as rain boots.

In the spring, she would play Inuit baseball with all the young people in the area.

“I didn’t go to school,” Etegik said.

Learning the Inuit ways of living off the land from her parents and other relatives was her schooling, she said.

In the winter of 1959, Etegik’s parents moved to Cambridge Bay, travelling there by dog team. She joined them that summer, making the trip in a canoe.

“My mum and dad wanted to move here because we had relatives here,” she said.

For the first time, her family made their home in a small cabin, having always lived in an iglu or tent.

To this day, Etegik loves going out on the land and has become an active member of her community. Twice a week, she helps teach a ladies’ sewing group, having learned how to sew at the age of 15.

Through the group, she instructs women on how to make patterns, cut hides with an ulu, and sew hides, as well as how to make mitts, kamiks and parkas.

Etegik likes to tell stories and give guidance while she teaches, and enjoys being approached for help.

Her advice to young women today is to “learn how to sew and live in a good way,” and she believes in the importance of keeping such traditions alive.

“There’s so much to say about her,” said Pia Gunn, a high school student and assistant at the heritage society’s cultural centre. “She’s just so loving. I really like her. She has a great sense of humour and she’s so helpful.”

“All the students love working with her because she is very patient and gentle,” added Krucas. “She’s an amazing teacher! I love her and I feel incredibly lucky to know her.”