An Overview of Ulukhaktok Community Corporation

Voting system: One vote for each active/ honorary member. Elections are held in December each year. The chairperson’s term is three years. Directors’ terms are two years. Each year, the numbers of seats are staggered.

How UCC works with members: All community/regional concerns are brought to the attention of the board, and worked on where appropriate by elected members of the UCC.

How UCC works with other organizations: We work closely with the Hunters & Trappers Committee, Elders Committee, Youth Council, and when necessary the Hamlet Council. Issues include but are not limited to local concerns, hunting and land use including mineral explorations, community programs, elders and youth programs.

Programs delivered by the UCC: Summer Language Camp (funds from IRC), Brighter Futures programs administered by the UCC including programs for elders, youth, school and daycare programs. We host language camps, fishing camps, and seasonal programs. During the fall and winter we have traditional skill teaching and sewing skills classes, we also have a funeral assistance program, and the IHAP (Inuvialuit Harvesters Assistance) program.

What is Uniquely Ulukhaktok:

Our community is the furthest east of the six Inuvialuit communities. We are decedents of both the Inuvialuit and Kangiryuarmiut people. The Inuvialuit here speak two dialects of the Inuit language: Inuinnaqtun and Inuvialuktun. Amongst many attractions we have world-renowned artists and carvers, the northern most golf course in Canada, amazing landscapes, and closely held traditional, cultural, and family values.

Esther Wolki from Paulatuk is twenty two and ready to take on the world! She is a fresh graduate from the Canadian Forces training program for Artillery Soldiers.

Asshe arrived back in Paulatuk in her traveling uniform, Esther “Gunner” Wolki exudes a sense of assertiveness and worldliness. She has been away from home for the past eight months, getting through the stages of training required to become a Canadian Forces Artillery Soldier at Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec and then Gagetown, New Brunswick. She has passed her military qualification tests, the ‘BMQ’, her ‘SQ’ and ‘MOC’. She rills off these military acronyms, as well as the names of field guns - ‘the LG1 wheeled, 105-mm howitzers, and the M109 self-propelled 155-mm howitzer’ the way youths usually list famous rock bands. More importantly, the “quiet one that can’t speak up” (as Esther’s sergeants initially called her) has progressed leaps and bounds to win the “Most Improved Student” award by graduation.

“We have to learn to establish line communications using radio equipment, and I was so nervous, I would keep saying ‘over’ instead of ‘out,’ and ‘out’ instead of ‘over’. “Wolki! You’re doing it again!” my bombardier would yell. And I would smile so much my cheeks started to hurt,” Esther said. “And I used to be nervous when I am around people of higher rank, such as my sergeant Lily or bombardier Ducet. I would look away when speaking or keep on smiling, but now I just say what I want. I am really confident now.”

“They have trained me to become more aggressive. I was made course senior a couple of times and I had to yell at people, because everyone’s doing something different unless you are loud and give out the information. I went into the army expecting to be singled out, but we began with a course that taught us to recognize we are all equals. Everyone was different in a way, each person had come from a different province or territory, so I felt fine.”

“Before I joined the army, I was not active. I would go for short hikes, but I would never go running in hot weather. I passed the fitness test to get into the army, but the training includes waking up at 5:30am each morning to do physical training, then having breakfast and being ready for inspection by 7:15am. There were inspections until we passed and could show that we could keep the drill standards in dress and deportment. Our guns had to be spotless, our boots shining. My boots became a standard for the rest of the group,” she laughs.

Daily training included both theory lessons and combat training, from digging trenches, to taking apart and putting back together machine guns. “Once, we were practicing fighting, we get to go at each other for half a minute each with sticks that have two q-tipped like ends, and because of the constant inspections, we had a lot of aggression and were going hard. I got hit twice on the head. I felt dizzy, but I wasn’t worried. A teammate informed the sergeant and I had to go see the doctor. I was put on light duty for seven days. We were leaving for training on the field the next day, but the sergeant told me I couldn’t go. I was upset because the field is one thing I really look forward to.”

“On the field, everything happens really fast, it’s exciting! You know what you’ve to do against the ‘enemy force’, and at the end of the day, when you do your job well, you’re told, “well done” and that feels good.”

“I find the shacks more difficult. It’s where we relax on the weekends. Most people are usually drinking then, so I watch movies. We all laugh and communicate well in class. I stay with three girls in a room. In Inuvik, when I lived at the boarding home as I went to high school, we had people from all over the territories staying together. Sometimes there would be quarrels, so I often stayed in my room, with my haven of sewing, tv and Nintendo games, until I made some friends. I find myself staying away from people before they can hurt me since then, but I don’t complain,” she continues.

Esther is getting to know herself better. She is candid and strong as she faces her fears. Her honesty also extends to her view on being a soldier. “A teacher encouraged me to go into fashion design when I was young, but my mother was sick then and I was not ready to leave her. For me, joining the army was a way of getting myself out of town, to go as far away as possible to seek out options. I know there are a lot of advantages and disadvantages to being a soldier. A lot of people are there because they like being paid even while they’re still in training…A lot of people think if I become a soldier, it means I’ll get sent off to Afghanistan to get killed. But no, you don’t go to war right away, you go through a lot more training and courses. Before you go out, you’ll be well trained to face every possible scenario. There’s always going to be a war between two sides, and it is in Canada’s nature to help. There will be casualties, but if I am the one on the news, it’s nobody’s fault, it’s a choice I chose to make. If we don’t have the freedom of choice, that’s when it’s frightening.”

Esther came back to Paulatuk for a family visit after her graduation from field artillery training. Nellie Cournoyea helped her secure a flight sponsored by Canadian North. “The graduation was very nice. We drove in on decks with our guns, and fired off rounds. The CO spoke to each of us and gave us our awards. We were given our placements into the next rank; I was awarded my cap badge. My family could not come because it was too expensive a journey, but I tried really hard to imagine them there.” She will be going next to her regiment in Shiloh, Manitoba for further training, before she might be deployed on a peace mission. “There’s really a lot of options for people,” Esther said, “I can see it for them, even if they might not see it for themselves right now. There are big opportunities for youth, people can go back to school, take managerial courses, find new jobs, move out of town. I’m a soldier now, that’s so cool… I didn’t think I’ll make it. My family is so proud.” t is a windy weekend in Sachs Harbour, and a procession of decorated ATVs, trucks and a clown are making their way around the community, honking and yelling “Wake up, Sachs!!” The Sachs Harbour annual White Fox jamboree is taking place, in combination with Oceans Day (a Department of Fisheries celebration where knowledge of sea life is promoted through fun games and events). Sachs Harbour has a population of about a hundred and fifty people, and most of them came out for the celebrations.

“This is fun!” said Mariah Lucas, eleven. She was awarded a pail of maktak, a schoolbag and stationary as prizes for her Oceans Day logo design. Community members who took part in the games and celebrations were given organic clothing imprinted with the logo. Children enjoyed an educational obstacle course, in which participants had to enact the ‘Life of a Char’. They run through the course, avoiding being netted by fishermen, fighting off polar bears (impersonated by adults wearing facemasks), and laying eggs (blowing bubbles).

The main events took place on the beach, and in the community gymnasium. A feast of traditional foods and barbeque was held with the help of community members, IRC and DFO staff. Elder Lena Wolki enjoyed the dry fish, as did the children! Beverly Amos cooked up some seal meat as there were lots of visitors who had never tried it before. The community tried to put a twist into the usual jamboree events. “Usually in Nail Drive, you nail the log from above, but this time they had to nail from beneath the log. A lot of the participants found it more challenging and had fun,” said jamboree organizer Andrea Keogak.

“Usually we have jamboree at winter, but this year we thought we’d have it earlier so more people could come,” said Frank Lucas, an elder. “We don’t usually have this many people in Sachs! Saturday was focused on kids. We had a jigging contest for children, it’s good for the community to have these activities.”

Tony Lucas Sr. and his other half, Priscilla Smith won the positions of Jamboree King and Queen. They raised $1,600 by selling tickets. “We have lots of people to thank. I am not the kind to get out and do stuff like this usually, but it’s good to participate and give back to the community,” she said.

The way of life in Sachs Harbour seems to have its attraction, as more people seem to be moving there, or moving back. Priscilla had moved from Inuvik to Sachs Harbour to be with Tony, and she said, “I like it here. People live more traditionally here. You can see all kinds of wildlife that you could never imagine to see, polar bears, muskox…it is pretty isolated here but once you learn about going out on the land to fish and to boat around, it’s pretty nice.”

Tony called himself a ‘lifer’ in Sachs. “It’s nice and quiet, and everybody knows each other,” he said. “I finally bought an ATV, so we can travel around more now. We live off the land a lot. It’s $2.49 for a can of pop here. Once in awhile we might buy some pop and frozen meat from the store, but not that often.”

When asked whether people from Sachs Harbour choose to remain there because they might resist living in a larger community, Andrea Keogak said, “I went to Inuvik to do my grade 10 to 12. It’s not a huge change, because people from Sachs have swimming lessons in Inuvik, they travel out of the ISR for sports, and our teachers take kids on trips to get them out of town, to see colleges. I am glad people from Sachs who are in Inuvik right now are all passing their grades in school. It’s good to see they are able to go to Inuvik and live with people they might not know.”

Priscilla Elias, who graduated from the Recreational Leadership Program at Aurora College in Inuvik, is now working for the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs. She bought her own ticket to get back for this jamboree. “I’m glad to be home, to see my family and friends,” she said.

Lena Wolki, an elder, has recently moved back to Sachs Harbour. She tried to live in Inuvik last year to look after her grandson, who moved there for his high school studies. “Sachs is where I belong,” she said. “In Inuvik, when I look out of window, I just have a boring view of buildings. Here I’ve a view of the ocean. I can go anywhere I want here with skidoos or a boat, I feel so free here.”