Clothing sewn for search team
Hall Beach gets funding to make traditional parkas, mitts, pants and kamiks
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Saturday, August 27, 2016
SANIRAJAK/HALL BEACH
Sending out a Search and Rescue team in frigid winter temperatures in less than ideal clothing spurred the members of the Hall Beach team to seek funding for traditional clothing.
Jenna Auguratsiq, left, Felicia Nuvviaq, Neevee Alianaq, Lizzie Panipakutsuk and elder and teacher Ruth Qaunaq are hard at work sewing caribou skin outerwear for the Hall Beach Search and Rescue team. - photo courtesy of Rhoda Maliki
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The Hall Beach Search and Rescue team has nine members, all volunteers, said vice-chairperson Solomon Nasook.
"The teams we send out usually don't have proper travelling clothes, winter clothes. So we applied for funding to make 10 complete sets. There will be a parka, mitts and pants, and kamiks," he said.
"Anybody who doesn't have proper clothing can borrow them."
Nasook says sets can also be brought out on the search to outfit a stranded hunter or hunters and save them from hypothermia.
"If they're all wet and don't have spare clothing . it's pretty dangerous to bring them back all wet."
Nasook says the search and rescue organization has very dedicated members who have been part of the team for quite a few years.
Luba Nangmalik, the community's community economic development officer, sought the funding - which came through the Qikiqtani Inuit Association's community initiatives program. The program, established in 2007, aims to fund projects that are community-driven and connects to as many beneficiaries as possible, according to the regional organization's website.
The clothing project received just a few dollars less than $12,600, said Nangmalik, who purchased material for under-layers, caribou skins and thread.
Two elders are running the workshop for nine students and they all set to work Aug. 22. Nangmalik says the workshop will last 15 days. Some of the students already know how to prepare skins and sew, while others are beginning seamstresses.
Nasook says the Hall Beach Search and Rescue team does quite a lot of searches in the winter, including for neighbouring Iglulik's Search and Rescue team. Iglulik and Hall Beach are about 75 kms apart. That community's hunters sometimes get stranded out closer to Hall Beach, where caribou like to roam.
Nasook says they always find their missing people.
The idea for the clothing workshop came from extended chats during searches.
"We talk quite a bit while we wait for the searchers to come back. The committee decided we wanted to try that," said Nasook.
The team also put in an application for a similar workshop for qamutik-building. Currently the team uses old, donated qamutiik, including one from the school. But that funding did not come through.
Rhoda Maliki is a participant in the clothes-making workshop.
"The time goes fast," she said. "I enjoy every minute of it."
