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INUVIK
If anyone had any doubt that Gerry Kisoun can talk, it should have been dispelled at the KO K'E Storytelling Festival Sept. 16.

Inuvik's Gerry Kisoun was one of the people taking part in the KO K'E Storytelling Festival at the Midnight Sun Recreation Complex Sept. 16. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo

The affable Kisoun is one of the original residents of Inuvik, and when he takes a stroll down memory lane, it goes back quite a ways and continues for quite a while. Particularly when he's largely unscripted, as he was at the festival organized by the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre.

The show was part of the Into the Spotlight tour, which travelled to various communities around the NWT.

Every show featured at least one regional representative to showcase the culture and history of the area.

In Inuvik, that job fell to Kisoun, who ran with it.

He took obvious delight in recounting some of his earliest memories of living in Inuvik and the Mackenzie Delta area.

At the age of three, already showing more than his fair share of charm and charisma, Kisoun said he was dogsledding independently of his parents.

He related how one day, with his father planning to check his trapline, Kisoun refused to get on the family sled. Instead, he demanded his own team.

His father hooked up a single dog to a small, child-sized sled.

Much to his surprise, Kisoun took off like the proverbial "bat out of hell" and it was a merry chase indeed before the family caught up with him.

By the time he was a teenager, Kisoun was running five dogs and sledding around the Delta area, he told the audience. By that age, most of his peers were lucky if they had one dog, much less five.

He would often spend his weekends roaming the river and delta, Kisoun said.

"I'd get home at midnight or so on a Sunday night, sometimes a bit later, and still get up for school the next day," he said with a smile.

Somehow, it all worked out for him.

Kisoun, who is now 60, went on to have a distinguished 25-year career as an RCMP officer before starting a second career with Parks Canada in visitor services and community relations.

Not surprisingly, since that job involved talking to the public, he thrived in it as well.

Now, he takes his vast knowledge of the area and puts it to use as one of the most sought-after tour guides in Inuvik and the Delta.

And, of course, he continues his longstanding tradition of enjoying a good chin-wag whenever possible.

So if you get to talking with Kisoun, make sure you're free for a half-hour or an hour.

And maybe bring a notebook to record some of the living history of Inuvik.

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