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MITTIMATALIK/POND INLET
Carole Munden taught around the world, from her native England to the High Arctic, Papua New Guinea and Botswana. But her heart was in the North, and now she is here to stay.

British expatriate Carole Munden taught for eight years at the Eastern Arctic Teachers' Program in Frobisher Bay before settling in Ottawa, where this photo was taken. Her dying wish was to be buried in the Arctic, so her brother Mike brought her ashes to Pond Inlet. He could not identify the girl. - photo courtesy of Mike Munden

Munden, who taught at the Eastern Arctic Teachers' Program in Frobisher Bay in the 1970s and 1980s, died in 2009 at the age of 71. Her ashes were buried at Pond Inlet's Catholic cemetery May 23.

"Oh my goodness, really?" asked one of her students, Peesee Pitsiulak, now the Nunatta campus dean at Nunavut Arctic College in Iqaluit, when she learned of Munden's request to be brought to the Canadian Arctic. "The North had a special place in her life, in her heart. I'm really happy to hear that."

Munden and Pitsiulak became close over the years, and they would always meet for lunch when Pitsiulak visited Ottawa, where Munden worked before she retired. They stayed in touch until Munden's last days.

"She really enjoyed catching up, even though it was years later, decades later," Pitsiulak said. "We would often share little stories of when I was in school and she was the instructor. She was a very good instructor, and she always demanded excellence. She taught us to do things to the best of our abilities. She made me think."

Heart problems led to Munden's death in 2009, and her body was used for heart research before it was returned to the family last year. Under directions from Munden's will, her only brother Mike and his wife Sue took Carole's ashes to Pond Inlet, where they stayed with Rev. Daniel Perreault at The Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church.

"We had been up to Pond Inlet 10 years ago with Carole," Mike said. "Because she worked in Iqaluit for eight years, she said if we wanted to make the trip up North, in April 2002, we had to do it before any more of her former friends and colleagues had retired."

Although Carole did not specify that Pond Inlet was where she wanted to be laid to rest, during the trip, the three visited the Catholic cemetery, where friend John Scullion is buried.

"She didn't take us to the cemetery in Iqaluit, so we made the judgement that that was where she wanted to go," he said. "We could understand totally because the view over the bay to Bylot Island is absolutely magnificent."

Carole never married, but had many friends, particularly in Ottawa. Following a suggestion from Colly Scullion, John's wife, Mike and Sue took a portion of Carole's ashes to Pond Inlet, and Carole's friends spread the rest on Scullion's garden in Carleton Place, Ont.

"She was really an adopted Canadian," Mike said, noting Carole spent 40 years in Canada, and left Frobisher Bay in the early 1980s. "She just had an affinity to the Arctic, and I can understand it."

Her love of travelling even had an impact on Mike's personal life.

"Our relationship was one from a distance because she was all over the world," he said. "Sue and I had to delay our wedding because Carole was on a trip to base camp Everest, and she was one of the bridesmaids."

This imposition didn't surprise or bother Mike, who is a confessed homebody. He was also happy to fulfil her wish of being buried in the Arctic.

"That's Carole," he said. "I wanted to carry out the duty she had asked me to."

About a dozen community members attended Carole's service, which was conducted in English and Inuktitut. A plaque marking her place reads 'Teacher' in Inuktitut syllabics.

The tribute paid by Pond Inlet residents is a fitting tribute to the woman Pitsiulak knew as a teacher.

"No matter where she went around the world, she connected with the people rather than just the job," Pitsiulak said, noting that everywhere she worked, "she was connected to the community. She really cared about people and she knew the people."

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