Maria Canton
Northern News Services

Garry Lake (Oct 18/00) - There is plenty of wildlife at Garry Lake today, a far cry from what it was like several decades ago.

In the 1950s, hunting was bad and the community was faced with starvation, which forced them off the land.

Located almost 200 kilometres northwest of Baker Lake, near the Queen Maud Migratory Bird Sanctuary, 19 members of the original community made the trek back to their homeland, Sept. 8-15, returning for the first time in 42 years.

"Everyone was full of memories -- a lot of memories of how things were when they were starving," said Agnes Turner, who left her family at the camp when she moved to Chesterfield Inlet to attend school at the age of 10.

Turner helped organize the trip with help from the Kivalliq Inuit Association.

"As soon as we got near the area the elders started saying they recognized the landscape."

The day after the group of 19 arrived by plane, hunters went out and came back with a caribou for everyone to feast on.

More caribou were killed days later and many fish were caught.

A grizzly bear and muskox were also spotted.

The wildlife and abundance of country foods were good omens for the people who remember well the hardship they endured.

Building ruins, oil barrels and a sandy airstrip are all that are left of the original community, but Turner said it was the landscape that brought back the most memories.

"Right away I recognized the area where my family and I walked from the Perry River, near Cambridge Bay. We walked all the way to Garry Lake to live there," she said.

Her father, who is 86 years old, has wanted to travel back to the area since the day they left to show his appreciation for the land where his children were born and where he hunted and lived.

"For seven days we talked and visited and remembered our lives together," said Turner. "It was about being free and celebrating our return to where we were from."