Research project builds iglus
Elders' knowledge collected and shared with youth during workshops
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Monday, January 25, 2016
IKALUKTUTIAK/CAMBRIDGE BAY
The Kitikmeot Heritage Society teamed up with architect Nancy Mackin for a six-month exploration of shelters, with the second of three workshops held Jan. 16 to 18 in Cambridge Bay.
Noah Kuptana, left, and Peter Evetalega help construct an iglu outside Cambridge Bay. Iglu-building was one part of a three-day workshop held in the community Jan. 16 to 18. - photo courtesy Brendan Griebel |
Mackin, also a professor with the University of British Columbia, received a grant from Health Canada's Climate Change and Health Adaptation Program for Northern First Nations and Inuit Communities.
The goal of the project, said Mackin, is "reconstructing traditional shelters from the region with the interest of reviving the traditional knowledge as well as teaching the possibility of adapting some traditional knowledge for survival shelters that might be used by people who are out on the land, for keeping people healthy and safe on the land."
As an architect, Mackin has had projects in Canada and Norway and, stemming from her PhD, her area of expertise is ethnoecology, architecture, environments and culture, and traditional ecological knowledge.
The project, titled Inuinnaqtun Shelters for a Thawing Arctic, will see "the knowledge that is worked on in the community stays," said Mackin.
"Also we have partners, including the Canadian High Arctic Research Station. So it's a way of doing partnerships within the community."
Day one of the latest workshop was open to the whole community.
Videographer Mark Hadlari of Cambridge Bay is a reporter with CKLB Radio in Yellowknife and he's taken time off work to create a visual record of the project.
"A lot of people wanted to help with the construction of the iglu," Hadlari said. "They wanted to learn as much as they could. I met a lot of people there who had never seen a construction of an iglu. They were very excited to come out and help."
Jan. 16 was spent building an iglu across the bay close to the Old Stone Church, where the snow was perfect to build, with about 25 people participating in the construction.
"The elders did share some information about how they used the spring iglus. And that's a perfect example of what we built on the bay - an iglu without the top, with a caribou skin for the top. That was information I didn't know previous to this trip," said Hadlari.
On Jan. 17, 10 elders gathered at the Kitikmeot
Heritage Society.
"The elders workshop portion was a knowledge exchange and was extremely useful because that taught us a lot about the overlap between the shelters that were built and the foods that were gathered, and possibly how these have changed with climate change, culture change and the way people's lives are changing over time," said Mackin.
On Jan. 18, Mackin and Hadlari visited Kiilinik High School for an iglu model-building workshop with the Grade 7 class.
"The third day with the young people was so successful because of their interest in this process and the fact that the school has a vested interest in making sure that the children experience how to build iglus," said Mackin.
"Our intention when we do the next workshop in late February is to have a high school class involved so that they can also directly experience the detail and technical knowledge that it takes to build an iglu."
The summer workshop focused on summer dwellings, while the final workshop will be, with the expertise of elder Attima Hadlari, "a smaller workshop, focused on the details and technology of building an iglu to make sure everything is really done to perfection."
"It will have a slightly different focus," said Mackin. "It will be more for really bringing the knowledge into active use."
Mackin adds, "With Mark's expertise in videography and in displaying how this is actually done, then this will become more of a tool in terms of how to prepare people for survival if they're out on the land and they have only their hands and the snow to make a shelter.
"I see Mark as a knowledge holder. As a research person I found Mark's knowledge extremely helpful. It wouldn't be like bringing a videographer from Ottawa or something because he has knowledge of the community and knowledge of the land."
After the February workshop, Hadlari will edit the material he has shot and Mackin will write "a number of papers which are already in the works."
Mackin will present her papers at conferences. The video will be widely shared with Isuma TV and on YouTube "and should have some wonderful music in it with Tanya Tagaq's permission."
"All of that will be ready in the spring," said Mackin.
Visits to Kugluktuk and Ulukhaktok are also planned.
"We will show the video and do some model-making to exchange knowledge and to build on the knowledge on these different dwelling types," said Mackin.
"Also to work on the language, record the Inuinnaqtun words of the different portions, different materials of the different shelters and the different names for the types of snow that might be used. So building on the language repertoire and exchanging that among the three communities."
The fruits of the project will also be available through the Kitikmeot Heritage Society.
