Lake Harbour (Apr 26/04) - Noah Qaqqasiq does not have 10 wives. But he does know a story of man who lived around his home community of Arctic Bay who did, years and years ago.

And during a recent volunteer conference in Iqaluit, that story was jokingly used with Qaqqasiq as the star player.

He didn't mind the teasing. Qaqqasiq was thrilled to be around like-minded people who were in Iqaluit to discuss the serious issue of recruiting volunteers for community events.

"When people say you did a wonderful job, that feels good," said Qaqqasiq about why he volunteers his time to help others in Kimmirut. "I hope to hear more of that than criticizing. I want to see less pointing fingers and more applause. I want to see more sharing with people and people trying to lift up other people with volunteering."

Qaqqasiq has a musical quality to the way he speaks, so it is no surprise to learn he is a self-taught musician.

"Mainly guitar and keyboards," he said. "But I play all sorts.

Except I cannot play sax. They say I need to have big lungs. So sax and fiddles I can't play."

Growing up in Arctic Bay, Qaqqasiq listened to short wave radio.

"That's where I picked up the music," he said. His influences are Danish and Greenlandic style, and he isn't a fan so much of the Celtic stuff.

"I don't want to put Eastern Canadian and high Arctic people down, but they just want to listen to the folk music," Qaqqasiq said. "But when you travel to different countries it seems like they're more up to date.

"We're so behind on the music sometimes.

"When you try to talk about new style, they just lose the picture because they have been listening to the same beats over and over again for many years."

Qaqqasiq sees volunteering as its own symphony that needs a good conductor in each community.

Hearing the same things

"People have been hearing the same things, they forgot to listen to the volunteers.

"When it comes to volunteers it's us, the community. If we want our community to be stronger, the volunteerism has to be stronger, too."