IKALUKTUTIAK/CAMBRIDGE BAY
Aussie gift-giver Bob "Uncle Bob" Carveth has been at it again in Cambridge Bay, this time donating a red kangaroo skin vest to one lucky youth.

Lance Akoluk jumps for joy after receiving a kangaroo skin vest. - photos courtesy of Bob Carveth

Carveth, a resident of New South Wales, Australia, retired a quarter century ago and has entertained himself by learning about the other side of the planet through random gift-giving.

During the year-end awards assembly at Killinik High School, he donated something that caught the eye of students even more than the cameras, table tennis equipment and other goodies he had given the school previously.

Vice-principal Anne Daniel recalled the experience.

"Students shyly made their way up to accept their books and money and certificates," she stated in an e-mail about the assembly. "We had a large crowd of parents and relatives who were all snapping pictures, smiling proudly and hooting happily for their children."

At the end of the awards, the school took a moment to discuss the idea of philanthropy and why it's important to give back.

That's when Daniel mentioned Carveth and said the Australian had some more gifts up his sleeve.

She called student Lance Akoluk to the front.

"Lance eagerly pulled apart the bag that held his gift and lifted out the vest, shaking it out gingerly with his small, shy chuckle," said Daniel.

Upon finding out it was a kangaroo skin vest, the crowd gave a thundering round of applause.

"The students were stunned at seeing this beautiful and unusual vest and could not keep their hands off it," according to Carveth, who later heard about the event back home in Australia.

The red kangaroo skin vest was the piece de resistance. Carveth said no one in his home country is impressed with kangaroo skins, but for people in Nunavut, they are a special foreign treat.

"The skin is very soft, very flexible and quite strong," he said.

Carveth got the skin in Australia and had Connie Kapok from Cambridge Bay craft a vest from it.

Carveth has been donating items to be passed on to students in Cambridge Bay for the last five months, including 13 cameras, two computers, parkas, school items, sporting equipment, mechanic tools and even a cash donation to a young mother.

"With the problems of old age, bypass surgery, I have been thinning off my assets by donating to charitable causes," stated Carveth in an e-mail to Nunavut News/North.

He felt like donating to people on the opposite side of the world would be a good focus of his philanthropy. Nunavut was the farthest northern place he could choose.

"The high suicide rate among peoples of these areas worried me," added Carveth. "I consider that this has a strong link to the loss of culture, especially cultures based on hunting, kinship and survival, which gave firm structure to people's lives. This is why a lot of my donations have been based on reward for diligence in language studies."

These donations have been the best history lesson he could ever have, he added.

Carveth now plans to focus his philanthropy on the NWT as he begins to study indigenous cultures in other parts of Northern Canada.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.