Yellowknife (Sep 15/03) - When Rev. Mike Gardner and his soon-to-be wife came North in 1955 they didn't know what to expect, but they learned the language and raised a family here.

News/North: How did you hear about this place?

Rev. Mike Gardner: I didn't hear at all about it. I felt called to go where it was cold to be a minister and a missionary, not knowing if there were any people where it was cold (laughs).

NN: You didn't know?

MG: I didn't know about 'Eskimos' as such, no.

NN: So you arrived here, and what did you think?

MG: I didn't suddenly arrive. I first got in touch with first bishop of the Arctic, Archibald Fleming (in Toronto). He wrote me a letter, I've still got it here: 'My dear young friend...' He was around until 1950, and I was just a kid coming out of the Air Force, and I was saying 'What should I do? Should I go North?' So I went to theological college in England and I finished in 1955. And I got another letter from the second bishop of the Arctic, Donald Marsh.

So after I got ordained, I think the second week after, I set sail on a boat with Margaret (his fiancee at the time).

We went from Quebec to Toronto and then stayed one week in Toronto. We came up on a DC3 to Fort Chimo and then stayed with the minister there ... then we waited for the Hudson Bay company supply boat, which came along in two weeks time and took us to Pain Bay then Kimmirut -- Lake Harbour.

So we arrived on July 8, 1955, or something like that. I was still in my pajama pants greeting the first parishioners

They came on board. I wasn't prepared for people to come on board at 7 in the morning (laughs).

NN: What were your impressions of the North when you first arrived. Obviously you had to learn the language (Inuktitut).

MG: That was the only job I had to do. The bishop said 'Learn the language.' I had to preach in Inuktitut the first Sunday I was there.

NN: Who helped you do that?

MG: There was no interpreter, so I did it by the grace of God. And I was inspired to use a bible in English, and sort of string words of sentences together to make a little talk, picking out verses and finding the equivalent in Inuktitut by the numbers.

NN: The numbers?

MG: Say verse five, so I found that in English, then I would look in the Inuktitut bible at the same chapter and verse and write it out in long hand. I had to read it out on Sunday. I'm glad I arrived on a Monday (laughs).

NN: Yes, at least you had a few days! And Margaret was with you?

MG: No. That's another story. The bishop said we must not live together, we'd be living in sin.

NN: Because you weren't married yet.

MG: No. And he wouldn't let us get married because the wife-to-be had to see whether she wanted to stick with the North or not. There was a lot of sense in it because in those days there were no planes, and if you didn't like the place it was just 'tough.' So she was sent to Pangnirtung to relieve a cook there who went on a year's holiday. She worked as a cook at the hospital there -- it was run by the church then -- so we were courting over the single band radio and writing long letters.

NN: And you got married in Frobisher Bay...

MG: We arranged to get married as soon as possible, and that was when the boat came in to take someone out (of Pangnirtung). The first boat was the C.D. Howe, the Eastern Arctic patrol boat. It had nurses, a surgeon, dentist, x-ray, and I went on a local boat (from Kimmirut). Bad weather made me three days late for my wedding.

NN: What was the date? Sept. 10, 1956?

MG: It was supposed to be September 7.

NN: What was the weather like?

MG: It was terrible until the 7th, but when we rounded this cape at the end here, Kimmirut side, it became dead flat calm, so it was perfect weather this side.

NN: That was the first time you came to Frobisher Bay?

MG: First time.

NN: And then you both went off...

MG: To Kimmirut. An American base helicopter took us on "Operation Honeymoon" to Kimmirut and we lived there until 1960. We had our two children there, our third when we moved to Cape Dorset. We lived there until 1970, then the Bishop Marsh told us to open a training school for Inuit in Pangnirtung. I had six students and I trained them for ordination.

We stayed on there until 1981 and we came here, to Frobisher Bay.

NN: Tell me about your work when you first arrived here.

MG: My work was just to get to know Inuit people, because there were very few non-Inuit.

NN: How did you cope in those first few years? How long did it take?

MG: To feel at home? The year before we got married (1955) I lived with an Inuit family in Kimmirut to learn the language. It was hard.

NN: How old were you?

MG: I was 24, but it wasn't too hard, like French, which was beyond me. Inuktitut, you could understand it. It seemed logical to me. I think it's a very flowing, flexible language, so that's the work we did.

We had a handful of people in the community during the winter. We would have them in our house, have a service there. When we had more people we'd use the church (St. Paul's) and there would be teaching. We had a good time.

Everyone knew everybody. Much more personal than these days.

NN: Your kids, they all speak Inuktitut?

MG: Fluently. It's their first language.

We've got Anne, she lives in Grise Fiord. Susan, she lives here (Iqaluit) and Patricia, who lives here. So they've settled down. We have nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

NN: What has kept you here?

MG: This is the call God wanted us to do. If God didn't want us, everything would have been in our way, we couldn't be here.

NN: What kind of qualities do you need to survive in the North?

MG: Someone who is not too hyper. You have to take things as they come.

I think you've got to have a sense of calling or duty as well. You have to want to have a home here because you like the land, you like the people, whether Inuit or non-Inuit.

Get to know the culture, mix (with people), laugh, have a good sense of humour, and not to be too drawn by ties in the South.