Tradition and Modernity Fuse at Great Northern Arts Festival

By Melanie Bell and Zoe Ho

The Nasogaluaks are coordinators of the Tuktoyaktuk Drummers and Dancers for the past 20 years. This group has performed for former Prime Minister Paul Martin and opened for Metallica in 1995. This group performed in the festival for the past two years. “This year,” says William, “Inuvik took their turn.” He explains that, while the Inuvik group performs mostly Alaskan songs and motion dances, the Tuktoyaktuk group’s repertoire consists mostly of coastal Inuvialuit drumming—“songs from generations of songwriters from Bailey Island-Tuktoyaktuk. We used to be the younger ones but now we’re the elders. We carry on as regionally as we can.”

“This year the music at the festival has a lot of southern content,” says William, referring to the country tunes often heard in the arena. “I think people who travel to the North expect to see more music from the North. There are lots of very capable people

Among the attending artists were fellow Tuktoyaktuk residents Vera Ovaiguok and Mary Anne Taylor, a stone and horn carver who won the People’s Choice Award for Sculpture in the closing ceremony. “My dad was a bone carver,” Taylor explains. Now five out of seven kids in her family carve. “Carving has always been in art in Tuk. That’s where we pick it up.” Will she pass the art on to the next generation? “It’s important, but it’s all up to the kids because education is so important right now. You can’t force your kids to carve. If they want to, they will.”

“[The Inuvialuit] used to just make carvings for gifts,” Ovaiguok explains. “If you buried someone they’d have a burial stone for them. There’s a lot of traditional sewing and crafts.” Ovaiguok herself enjoys both carving and sewing. She is currently in the process of making slippers for herself. She has been inspired by Taylor and her father Daryl, who taught her how to carve.

Ovaiguok’s only regret about the festival relates to tradition. “At home . . . if you’re going to do art, you have your traditional food.” She explains that when the Festival started, it featured a local cook, but that was discontinued due to the caribou ban. She suggests having attendees from all four Northern regions bring food from their communities to cook at the Festival.

A new addition to this year’s festival was Inuvialuit Master Hairstylist Will Chicksi. He is currently a member of an International hair team competing in a world championship in New

Corrine Lindsay, a Inuvialuit hair artist who is just starting out, described her joy to be his assistant during the Northern Fashion Show. She felt excited to meet a mentor and to work alongside him. “Meeting Will Chicksi was such an inspiration, he is everything I aspire to be and some,” she said. “He has given me the confidence to be as big as I want to be, even if I’m from a small town in the Northwest Territories.” And it is this spirit of mentorship and sharing that ensures the Great Northern Arts Festival will continue to thrive.

The fashion show at the Great Northern Arts Festival this year left many visitors impressed with Inuit fashion. Here are some of the highlights.

Mary Inuktalik wore a beaded amauti made by herself and participants in a Pauktuutit Woman’s Association program. It took several months for this item to be completed, and Mary said it felt extra special to be wearing it and remembering her experience of sewing as a group with fellow women and artists.

Tell us about hair! Hair! Hair!! Why did you choose it as a career? What are international hair shows like?

Well I guess it starts out like this, my mother Lucy Poshtar (Chicksi) moved to Edmonton, Alberta from Inuvik in the year 1974. She attended Marvel College where she graduated the following year to start her career at the young age of 20. Growing up with a mother as a hairstylist, it always felt natural to have the house full of clients, she makes everyone happy and looking good . I started cutting hair at age thirteen, at my mom’s salon in Lamont. My mom would tell stories about how my nanung (Effie Rogers) would always cut everyone’s hair in the community and trade it for services of labor & food. My mother took after her mother where I then chose the same destiny for myself.

Eighteen and a half years later, I’m loving it, living it, doing it. There is nothing more soothing than having every single person sitting in your chair wanting to be there. The most exciting thing is making every single person feel great about themselves. It is my privilege and honor to be able to express my creativity and passion through their hair and personalities. I am grateful God has given me this most powerful gift. Growing up on a farm in Lamont, a small Ukrainian farming community just outside of Edmonton is a great way to grow up, but it makes the bright lights at city shows and the international circuit pretty unreal. I’ve never assumed in my wildest dreams that I would be blessed to walk amongst some of the godfathers of hairdressers. I was taken back by their presence. It was then that I realized I wanted to walk in the same footsteps. I have been given the opportunity.

Did you have to leave the North to pursue your dreams further?

I left Inuvik at age of five so it wasn’t difficult for me to adjust leaving the north. My new challenge was to embrace the community and the culture. I was able to adapt to the community due to the fact that my step family were strong ukrainians. They made it a lot easier to understand a new culture.

What accomplishments have you achieved? Did you ever think you’ll come so far?

I am very proud to be one of the first Inuvialuit platform artists. I am very proud to say that I have been able to be a part of Kids for Cancer, one of the largest fund raisers in Western Canada. Within the last three years out of K division RCMP headquarters along with the help of other communities, we were able to raise $173,000.00. Thank you to all who participated. It was amazing to see the strength and numbers of hairstylists who want to fight this crippling disease. I have achieved six ABA awards on fashion cuts up-todate. I am honored to represent the #1 Japanese shear in the world, Matsuzaki.

I’m also having the pleasure of working for Pureology, the fastest growing product line in North America for the past five years. This has opened up the opportunities to represent some of the best companies in the world, to move forth in life. One of the greatest things I am learning is how to become a great person, friend and role model. I’ve always known that there would be something special for me out there but nothing like this.

What allows you to keep motivated?

I have achieved by believing in myself completely. This is my philosophy, “For yesterday we cannot change, so nor shall we dwell. For tomorrow we have not lived, but we can prepare for. But right now every moment in front of us we can control how we feel to live it out.” I also live by these five “P’s”: Passion: This is the fuel that drives us; Persevere: To overcome all challenges; Pride: To believe in yourself;

Personality:

Does being Inuvialuit have an influence on your choices or your options? Why did you come back to fundraise at the GNAF?

Being Inuvialuit has always been different, but never so different that I didn’t know who I was. Whether I was Inuvialuit or any other ethnicity, I would still strive to work towards success. You need to know where you’ve been and who you are, to know where you’re going. There is no greater honor than to represent my people. I thought it would be cool to do hair at the arts festival, to recognize hair as an art. The proceeds went back to GNAF to make it a stronger and better arts festival. I felt as if I was giving back to my culture, where my creativity has come from. I would like to thank all the great artists at the festival for making me feel at home and one of them.

What are your plans for the future?

Wow, what a question. Funny you should ask. To move my life forward in harmony and spirits, body and mind, career and focus, family and friends. All those are the four corners of my life. Without balance you can never have structure. This is something that I will be working on. I see myself facilitating hair amongst foreign waters. One day I will live out the dream of the Pure Chicksi Salon!!!

What is your life like now?

I am blessed with my family. My parents, Lucy & Richard have been the greatest inspiration in my life. They never stopped believing in me, giving me that strength to believe in myself. I love you both. My younger siblings, Ryan, Kirsten and Shannon whom which I am very close to, all play a big part in my life. Thanks “little buddies”.

If you were given a huge soapbox to stand on, and could share anything you’ve learnt with fellow Inuvialuit, what would be your message?

May you all use this tool to help yourself cause it has helped me.

In my New York training at Redkin Exchange one of the questions was “If you had one word to describe everything that you consist of, what was it?” So I realized that its only one letter, “B”.

“B” human “B” kind “B” forgiving “B” passionate

Karis Gruben experienced many firsts on the Lyubov Orlova this summer. The Russian icebreaker carried 70 international youth (aged 14-18yrs), as well as a team of 30 scientists, polar experts, educators, artists and environmentalists from Churchill, Manitoba, to Iqaluit, Nunavut on the Students on Ice Arctic expedition.

Student participants include 17 northern aboriginal youth, as well as youth from Russia, China, India, Germany, United Kingdom, United States and Canada.

“It was awkward at first,” said Karis, “not knowing what to talk about with each other, but soon I was learning words in Russian, and we had so many adventures everyday, I felt that if I slept in I would miss out.”

Karis saw her ‘first live polar bear, eating a walrus,” had her first iceberg sighting, even eating a chip off it; she was part of an ‘arctic swim team’, jumping off the gangway of the icebreaker into a patch of open water in the sea ice. “On our first day, we saw Orcas, they were coming right at the boat. We went in the zodiac boats to see different kinds of wildlife everyday, it was so cool.”

Karis had a taste of her first ice berg on this Arctic expedition.

Jumping on the swells.

Life on the icebreaker was full of variety. As part of the International Polar Year initiation, this expedition focused on hands on experiences through which students could see the impacts of climate change on the Arctic region and its people. “We did bottle drops to see where the currents would take them. We learnt about how the Arctic is a cornerstone of our planet’s ecosystem.” Karis also got to make friends with experts in science, such as Dr. Roy Koerner, a glaciologist. “‘We call him ‘Fritz’ - He was always funny, and we liked listening to his stories of his expedition to the Northpole by dogteam.” closer look at wildlife.

Mary Simon, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, an organization for the Canadian Inuit, was also part of the expedition team. Through exposure to leadership figures, the SOI team hopes to inspire youth on this trip to become future leaders and ambassadors for global issues.

Students were shocked to see the extent of global warming at Auyuittuq National Park.

Stopping at Northern communities such as Pangnirtung and Iqaluit, students were also given a chance to partake in the culture of other communities. Mary said, “What a welcome we had when we arrived in Pangnirtung. The elders took the time to talk to the youth and give their experience and impressions of what is happening to our Siila (water, earth and air). We have one word for these three things because they are so inter-connected.”

Mary Simon and Robin Anawak gave a presentation on the many difficulties that the Inuit could experience because of a changing environment, giving the youth food for thought. Southern youth became more conscious of the need for subsistence hunting in Northern communities. “We must understand that for thousands of years the Inuit have depended on these magnificent animals to feed them, to clothe them, to allow them to express themselves artistically by making sculptures of them,” said Colleen AlkalayHoulihan of Nobleton, Ontario. “Inuit have treated them with respect and kindness, understanding that we alone, as humans, cannot survive—we depend on others, and the caribou, seals, walruses, etc. are a part of our survival, and so too must we ensure their survival.”

The expedition also gave the students a sense of history. It took students to Katannilik Territorial Park, to visit archaeological evidence of habitation by earlier Dorset people. At Kekerten Island, students were reminded of the impact of European whaling days on the surrounding hills and tundra.

A staff member of SOI said, “Ten years ago, most of Hudson Bay was still frozen till the end of July and sailing to Churchill on anything other than a full icebreaker would’ve been nearly impossible till August. Today, the team went looking for ice, but came up short - there was no shortage of beautiful icebergs, bergie bits, and growlers - but no sign of the big sheets of pack ice they expected to see.”

The reality of global warming hit home when students stopped at Auyuittuq National Park for a hike. BJ Bodnar said, “The Inuit word Auyuittuq can be translated as “ice that never melts”. The only way that I can describe the melting event occurring at the park right now is unnatural.”

Returning home to Inuvik, Karis feels inspired to take better care of the planet. “It was also great to meet so many people who knew their language,” she said. “So now I want to learn my language, and when my friends have babies, I’ll encourage them to teach their kids the language too!”

Seeing walrus was definitely a highlight for the students.

To read more fun journals from students on this trip, go to www.studentsonice.com

The Students on Ice team, taking a parting shot on the deck of the icebreaker which carried them to so many adventures.