Lynn Lau
Northern News Services

Paulatuk (Apr 15/02) - Long ago, the people would drum dance.

Together, they would enact stories to a heartbeat rhythm, recalling the hunt with magical chants and fluid movements.

In Paulatuk, that ancient tradition had all but died out, until one day five years ago, when drum dancing was reborn among a group of kids sitting in front of a living room TV.

Nolan Green was just 10 years old when it happened.

He had watched a documentary at school about drum dancing. It was the first time he'd seen anything like it.

"Our Inuvialuktun teacher used to make us watch those video tapes," Nolan says. "I got inspired by the drum dancers that were in the video tape." He asked his teacher to borrow the tape, and he took it home to watch over and over.

Then, he modeled drums out of cardboard boxes and duct tape. Two friends joined him and together, they started mimicking what they saw on the video, using sticks on their cardboard drums.

Pretty soon, more of his friends were drawn in, and before long, they were drum dancing.

Inspiration

Nolan's mother, Mary Green, remembers how her son started getting into her sewing supplies so he could make costumes for the troupe. "He started making parkas by himself," Green says. "While he was sewing, he'd watch the videos and learn a little more of the singing. He could be in a room by himself and the sewing machine, singing along with the tapes."

From their humble beginnings, the Paulatuk Drummers and Dancers have gone on to perform in Alaska, Germany, and just recently at the Arctic Winter Games in Nuuk, Greenland. They started with just five youth, and they now have more than a dozen regular members and close to 40 songs in their repertoire. In Paulatuk, drum dancing is once again alive and well.

"Even the elders that we have don't really have stories about drumming and dancing," says Irene Ruben, a community member who has helped the group along. "The ones that did died long ago. These little guys revived it by themselves. Now they're teenagers."

Getting started

With his steady concentration and confident movements, 16-year-old Warren Ruben looks like he was born to drum dance. He credits Nolan for getting him into it four years ago.

"We were all at Nolan's and he was so interested, we would sit on the couch and watch him. I had nothing else to do, so I started. Some of my friends tease me about it, but I say, 'You just try it,' and they shut up."

The fledgling group had no place to practise, so they would drum dance outside in Nolan's yard. Tracey Wolki, a 15-year-old drum dancer, remembers practising with the group and having neighbours shoo them away for making too much noise.

"The adults didn't like us," says the soft-spoken teen. "Just the kids liked it. Every time we drum danced at home, the people used to just walk out on us."

"They think kids don't know how to do stuff right," adds Warren. "But we just kept doing it. We never gave up."

Only a few adults, like Inuvialuktun teacher Elizabeth Koktatkok Kuptana, her sister Irene Ruben and some of the parents encouraged the group to continue. Ruben and her husband invited the youth over for weekly practice sessions at their house.

"They'd go for hours, unending hours," says Ruben. "When they first started, it was Christmas and my Christmas tree used to be bouncing. I'd have to redecorate everyday. But I like to watch them. I was learning along with them too."

Going places

In 1999, the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation caught wind that there was a group of kids drum dancing in Paulatuk.

They arranged for five of them to go to Kiviq, an annual gathering of drum dancers in Barrow, Alaska.

There, they learned new songs, and met drum dancers from across the North.

The group arrived without drums, but they left with five -- donated by a woman who owns a drum shop in Alaska.

The following year, Parks Canada arranged for the teens to go to Expo 2000 in Germany, where they performed in the Canadian pavilion.

Now, just back from the Arctic Winter Games, the group is already dreaming of going to Expo 2005 in Japan, if they can raise the funds.

"I like dancing in front of crowds," says Tracey. "They say, 'encore, encore!' and they make you feel like it's worth it."

Now, when they perform at community functions for Christmas or Easter, the adults don't leave any more. They stay and they clap.

"Now we're shown everywhere on TV," says Warren with a smile. "It's like taking a ladder."

For a small group that started by watching videos on the TV, it seems like a suitable place for them to be, in front of TV cameras, inspiring other kids to listen to their own drum beats and follow their dreams.