The Beginning of “OUR ELDERS” Picture Series
Elder Timothy Taleriktok
We enjoyed interviewing Timothy on his experiences working at the Rankin Inlet Nickel Mine. To read the blog on the interview with Timothy, click here.
Mutna to our Elders!
Mutna to our Arviat coordinator, Tamar Mukyunik, for the idea of the Elder picture series :)
Mutna to Curtis Konek for taking the pics!
Elder’s Nakataq; July 9, 2011
June 8, 2011
Amy and Curtis interview Henry Isluanik about the history of Arviat
Trip to Ottawa, ON with Nanisiniq
by Jordan Konek
May 24 2011
It’s been almost a week since the Nanisiniq group came home from Ottawa, Ontario. We enjoyed the trip and learned some things from the people we interviewed. I enjoyed the whole time we were in Ottawa and it was my first time to go there. I lived in Toronto, ON for 2 and a half years but never had the chance to visit Ottawa.
One of the things I enjoyed the most is interviewing. The Nanisiniq youth researchers each interviewed some people who were involved in Rankin Inlet Nickel Mine and other things that we are researching. Each researcher has more detailed blogs that are posted on nanisiniq.tumblr.com. Feel free to check them out. I will also be posting one about the interview with David Serkoak who experienced some relocations during the late 1950’s and the early 1960’s. Like I said about how I liked the interviews, I enjoyed listening to the interviewees because they each had such strong stories about Inuit history. Listening to them was like a flashback in a movie. You never experienced it, but you can feel what they went through, how they felt and what they saw. I felt as if I was the one to have been through it.
It makes you realize how important it really is, when you’re in the moment that they’re talking about. Like one of our coordinator said: “Interviewing is like eating a good meal of caribou meat and reading is like a tasting of a potato chip”.
Other things that we did were also what made the trip fun. We practiced our friendship and teamwork being together for a whole week plus three days. There were some times when we had to just get away from each other, but really had no chance to. So sticking together also helped us to learn the ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ of being a team. I’m proud of the team personally and hope for the best because of our hard work. Our elder, Martha Okotak also made the trip worth while. She made us laugh everyday and gave us a good smile when most needed. We hope that she enjoyed the trip as much as we did. One thing I have to mention is that we went to a African restaurant and she stopped eating, looked at me with a serious face and said “make sure that we’re not eating a monkey”. She cracked us up, wether she was serious or not, she made it so funny. It was good to have her with us.
Beautiful!
This is a picture of Inuit Elder, Martha Otokala
