Enoki Kunuk
Northern News Services

Iglulik (Jan 28/02) - Since taking on the role of commissioner two years ago, Peter Irniq has been busy handing out awards. So far, he's recognized the contributions of 40 people.

A strong promoter of Inuit culture, Irniq says presenting people with awards for bravery and achievement pays tribute to Inuktitut principles and beliefs.

"It allows people to say thank you.

It allows people to build bonds ... and puts a lot of pride and honour there," he says. Most recently, Irniq travelled to Iglulik to present Enoki Kunuk with a Commissioner's Bravery Award.

In the words below, Kunuk describes the experience that led his daughter to recommend her father be honoured for his bravery.

In November 1963, we were going to travel across moving ice to Iglulik, from the land, to get supplies.

Qajaarjuaq told me that we would meet halfway, then go to Iglulik together. Ikkarialuk and I travelled about 10 miles to meet Qajaarjuaq.

Ikkarialuk had new dogs. When he put long lines on his dogs, I told him that we should use shorter ones and old ropes during the winter. When they're long, your dogs tend to go around anything and it makes it harder to handle the qamutik.

Also, older ropes don't get as damp as new ones. My friend's qamutiks were very short and I was using longer ones.

We waited two days for Qajaarjuaq, because he is an elder, and I believed him. However, after two days, we knew that he had gone through another route.

My father used to tell me that when there was a crack in the ice and it was moving north, I should travel northward, so that I would not drift out to sea.

When we crossed to the other side, it was getting dark and there were signs of thin ice. I wanted to backtrack a bit.

We backtracked until we came to a place where there was ice for drinking water and some snow. We made an iglu. We had drinking water. We also lit the iglu with a qulliq -- an oil lamp.

When we awoke, the weather was clear and we could see the ice over towards Iglulik. I cut a big piece of ice, on old ice, for drinking water and we took off.

On thin ice

We travelled until we were almost at thin ice. We went for almost another mile, but didn't come across a place for crossing, so we travelled back. The wind was light from the northwest. I told Ikkarialuk that if we travelled when the moving ice moved toward solid ice, I thought we could go across.

I wanted to stop for awhile. So we did and we could hear the ice moving closer to us, closer than I expected. The ice we were on was moving. A while later, it would stop and we could hear the sound of moving ice nearby, getting louder.

Since it was day time, we waited for the solid ice to move close enough to cross. We had caribou and tea while we waited. It was a beautiful day, and Ikkarialuk started to get restless.

He told me that in Pond Inlet, when the ice on the other side was that close, you could make it across. As long as the dogs didn't go through the ice, when your qamutik did, you could do it. It was getting harder to reason with Ikkarialuk.

I was ahead of him when we started out. If we had gone directly where I was planning to go across, we would have been fine.

Behind me, Ikkarialuk's qamutik seemed far away because of the long lead ropes he used. His dogs were starting to go around the path I was on. We were going across really thin ice.

Ikkarialuk said when he tied the ropes on his qamutik he fastened his whip on to it, so that if he fell through he would hang on to his whip to keep from drowning.

My dogs headed out across where I had instructed them to go. Suddenly, I heard my friend yelling for his dogs to turn. I looked back. His dogs were trying to cross very thin ice and were ignoring the commands of their owner.

The dogs' feet were going through the ice as they started to cross. Without grabbing on to the whip as Ikkarialuk had planned, I saw my friend jump to the side of the qamutik which was going through the ice.

I was shouting at him. His dogs did not go through and managed to get across.

I jumped off my qamutik. I thought I could reach him with my whip, from where I was. It happened so fast.

His parka and pants were made of duffle, so I knew he was going to drown. When our dogs crossed, I stayed behind because I was so sure that I would manage to pull my friend out right away. I was wrong.

Next week: A rope that didn't reach.