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Cooking in Pangnirtung
Pre-natal cookbook first of its kind

Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services

Pangnirtung (Aug 21/00) - In 1949, Rosie Veevee learned to cook by watching staff in the kitchen when she worked at the hospital in Pangnirtung. She was the janitor.

Today, her pulled-backed hair is streaked with silver and the deep lines on her forehead betray the years she has lived and the things she has seen.

There's a dictaphone humming on a long, wooden table in a back room at the adult learning centre in Pangnirtung.

Veevee is retelling bits of her memories but mostly talking about cooking, recipes and how she's combined qallunaaq foods with country foods for new recipes.

It's this sort of combination between modern and traditional ways that has sprouted Pangnirtung's first community pre-natal cookbook.

The recipes in the book can be used by anyone, but are geared towards pregnant women because of the healthy content.

And within its pages the past and the present combine to create a unique product.

"It's a hybrid," said Molly Blythe, a cultural studies professor from Trent University who facilitated a group of the university's native studies students who studied in Pangnirtung for six weeks this summer.

Health Services in Pangnirtung approached Blythe and the group of students with the idea of writing a cookbook uniquely based on Pangnirtung's Inuit culture.

"The best of the past and the best of the present are combined in this book," said Blythe.

"We are really just tools. It's their idea."

Veevee was asked to help because of her knowledge and experience.

"There were people in town who wanted someone to help them learn to cook," said Veevee through interpreter Donna Maniapik. "So I volunteered."

The project began in mid-July with the gathering of recipes. The book is currently in Ottawa undergoing final touch-ups and is to be printed in Iqaluit by Kirt Ejesiak.

"We're very excited," said Maniapik, who is co-ordinating the selection of 20 recipes.

"People from town need it, they're always looking for recipes," she added.

Community nurse Markus Wileke thinks the cookbook is a much-needed resource.

"There are no cookbooks in Inuktitut," he said. "It will benefit the whole community, it's going to be lent around and around."

The cookbook is being printed in English and Inuktitut, with diagrams.

Wileke also said that a cookbook for diabetes and heart disease is also in the works.

"It's important to eat country food," said Veevee. "It's healthy."