Tara Kearsey
Northern News Services

Pelly Bay, NU (Sep 23/02) - Quinn Taggart packed his bags just over four years ago and moved his family from Yarmouth, N.S. to Kugaaruk.

He was looking for a change, excitement, adventure -- and he definitely found it, plus a lot more. Quinn moves back to the East Coast this week but he will never forget his dear family in the North -- the entire community of Kugaaruk.

Quinn Taggart will always recall the cold North winds of Pelly Bay long after he heads back east to Nova Scotia this week. - Tara Kearsey/NNSL photo

News/North: Why have you decided to leave Kugaaruk?

Quinn Taggart: I've been here almost four-and-a-half years. I took a three-year term and it's basically for family reasons. My grandmothers are gettin' on in their years and the family has got to rally around and start to look after them. And, my son is getting a little older and looking to do more things that's not available in the community that we're in.

So, because of family reasons we looked at moving on and I'm going back to Nova Scotia where I'm from and hopefully things will pan out alright.

N/N: Why did you decide to move to Kugaaruk years ago?

QT: I guess at the time in my life I was looking for a change. I was looking for some adventure, and I was looking for something that was going to help me advance my career.

I had kind of gotten into a bit of a rut. And when I saw the ad for Pelly Bay (senior administrative officer's position) I immediately went to a map and found out where it was and thought 'You know, this could be really interesting.'

So, because there wasn't a lot of information around, I think that just added to the charm of things. I didn't know what it was going to be like, I didn't know what to expect and that made it that much better.

N/N: So how has your experience in the community helped you grow over the past few years?

QT: Other than gaining 10 pounds? (laughter) I think that when I first came I was very naive about the North. What little bit that was available to me on the Internet to research -- now there is tons.

So, I was relying on people's interpretations of the communities and how things were and I came up basically site-unseen. My interview was done over the phone, my offer was done by fax and so my employers didn't know what I was like face-to-face. And I didn't know what they were like face-to-face.

But over the past four years you grow to learn more about the culture and the language and a lot of the history. And the stories from the elders and so on ... that's the part that makes it very worthwhile in coming into a community such as Kugaaruk. They make you feel at home. They know you are an outsider, but yet as time goes by you learn more about who's who, and how they are as a people.

But some of the new projects that we've done -- like the kayak project, the miniature project, the marionettes -- those are projects that have been brought about by the people in the community to try to maintain or revitalize culture and heritage within the community. Those are the projects that I'm most proud of.

N/N: And how has the community changed since you first took on a position here?

QT: I think the community has developed a sense of pride in their heritage and their culture. Not that it wasn't there before, but I think that through some of the projects that we've managed to do it's revitalized a lot of that and brought it much more into the forefront.

We're utilizing the elders and pairing them up with the youth and we're trying to generate as much as we can for the youth to do in the community. And our community is no different than any community in the south or in the North. If the young people get bored, there's a perception that that's going to cause problems.

N/N: Of all of your accomplishments, what are you most proud of?

QT: I'm proud, I think, of the kayak project the most. And not as a personal accomplishment, as a team accomplishment.

We were able to take the elders and their knowledge and work with the youth and their abilities and their desires to learn and come out on top.

This year we managed to get a couple of tourists to come in and build their kayaks, we had a wonderful time. We went out on the land, we took them around, we took them out caribou hunting and stuff and they had just a fantastic time. All the advertising in the world for this project could not meet up with the satisfaction from the individuals themselves and the word of mouth advertising that we're going to get from that.

For the elders and the youth of the community, it really does make a big difference. I can step back now and look at it and say 'hey, that's going to keep on going.'

A lot of times when you have people come into communities such as Kugaaruk, sometimes the projects are personality-driven and when the personality is not there to drive them, they fall off. But I can feel confident knowing that some of the projects that I've been involved in over the past four years, they're not going to die. They're not going to die when I go because I haven't driven them. The community has driven them, the elders have driven them, the youth have driven them and they are going to continue on.

N/N: Are you saddened to be leaving?

QT: Of course. It's always with mixed feelings. Nobody can come into a community such as this, be welcomed and made part of the family and then not be saddened by leaving.

I'd like to say that I will be able to come back at some point to visit and go camping with the elders and hunting and so on. I'm not sure at what point that will be, but I would like to be able to do that.

I know that within a couple of years we'll have the (kayak) exhibition at the Smithsonian Institute and I'm going to take the trip down for the grand opening of that and support the elders in that project.

I am sad that I haven't had a chance to continue on some of the other project ideas that we've had. We just haven't been able to get them to fruition, but I'm positive that the projects that are on the go now will continue.

N/N: Years from now, what do you think you will look upon as your fondest memory of your experience in Kugaaruk?

QT: I guess the time with the elders. They're fantastic individuals. The language barrier doesn't mean nearly as much as what some people think because language isn't everything. I don't understand what they're talking about, they don't understand what I'm talking about, but we still manage to communicate and get our points across.

The elders that I've worked the most with are Gino, Josie and Otto -- the three elders who we have with our kayak project. But with all the elders in our community I've really enjoyed listening to their stories and talking with them. That's going to be my fondest memory.

N/N: What do you see for the future of Kugaaruk?

QT: We don't have diamonds in the back 40, there's no gold in them there hills. So without the advent of natural resources or one of the departments of decentralized government, we have to concentrate on what we've got. And what we've got are people and their culture, their heritage, their stories and everything that is them.

So in order for the community to survive above and beyond standard run of the mill stuff, we have to be able to draw in tourism. And that's what we've spent a lot of our time on over the past four years.

It's not like you're going to have incidental tourism. Nobody is going to be wandering by Kugaaruk and drop in for a visit, so you have to have a hook. And we think we've found that with our kayak project and Koomiut Co-op with their sea kayaking tours. These are all drawing points, they are unique and that's our hook.

I think tourism is going to be our mainstay over the next couple of years. Yes, it's expensive to fly into Kugaaruk. So we have to make sure that when we have the tourists in the community we make them feel just as much at home as they (the community) made me.

N/N: Do you have any words of wisdom for the person who will try to fill your shoes?

QT: (laughter) I guess, if it's someone who hasn't been in the North before, the biggest and best advice I could give is 'roll with it.' Every day is something new and you've got to be able to manage your stress to the point that you just can't control everything. You can't control the weather, you can't control whether the guy lands the plane -- there's all kinds of things that you can't control. If you really worry so much about those things, you're going to drive yourself nuts! If it's somebody who has been in the North before, then my advice is listen to the elders. Listen to what they have to say -- they know best.