T h e G r e at Nort h e r n C i rc u s S how

How many people dare to perform in public after a week of training as a circus performer? The students of New Beginnings Alternate School (NBAS) had their audience in awe with their ability and courage on Friday, March 10 th at The Great Northern Circus Show. The tension was palpable in the air as the audience held their breath, then broke into applause as Wanda Joe, the first trapeze performer swung above their heads and across the SHSS gym. She even hung upside down from her heels!

Here’s a look at the line-up: John and Bruce juggled balls and rings, Brit and Mary threw Devil Sticks, Robert and Lawrence, Mary and Wanda performed clown acts, Bruce did trickery with the yoyo, Mary swung a mean rope like a cowgirl, Bruce had fun in Diabolo, Mary and Robert spun plates on sticks, the girls danced on stilts, and there were more trapeze performances by Brit, Lawrence, Robert, and Bruce! The finale was a human pyramid, a coordination of team skills on stilts. The audience were delighted when elder Renie Kalinek, youth care worker for the NBAS went on the trapeze, and did a wicked swing in her traditional parka and fur hat.

Audience member, Tessa, 12 years old, said, “My favourite part was the trapeze, I would like to learn too!” The show might have had a couple of glitches, but it was perfect as a fun afternoon for the performers and audience.

It only took Mary Aviugana about 10 minutes to learn to walk on stilts. Wanda Joe said, “I learnt how to juggle, it’s cool. I loved swinging on the trapeze.” Better yet, she decided if she made a couple of mistakes in her performance, she would not let it get to her.

Robert Cardinal, like his fellow performers, said he had a great time, learning to “swing and do lots of tricks. I can devil skate, walk on stilts, go on the trapeze just for the fun of it.” He might not aim for a career as a circus performer, but the satisfaction of his performance left him glowing!

B e h i n d t h e s c e n e s

“That was awesome, that was a great show!” said Dean Bareham, circus instructor for the youth. He is a tour de force for them, helping them harness their nervous energy before their performance, a “good energy” according to him. The performers got into a power circle, and played games to hone their ability to listen and focus. What they gained from the process of training is invaluable, and made their final performance a bonus.

Dean runs a theatre company in Calgary, and it is his second time running this program in Inuvik. He said, “I really love this line of work because you can see the kind of self-esteem that is built. It’s amazing what happens, I really believe in circus work because it’s not competitive like sports, the kids get to pick their own battle at their own pace.”

“This New Beginnings Alternate Program, these are youth who don’t all fit into the mold. When you first come in, they are all tough, and it’s so funny, because in these remote communities, you realize these kids are just as homie-fied as others are in the big city. There are trust issues. We gain that trust, once the realize they are in a safe environment.”

“These guys really picked it up fast, once they put their mind to it. If you force them to do it, they might not want to, but if you let them do it, all of a sudden they are juggling!”

Renie Kalinek, youth worker, said, “Sometimes teenagers think they can’t do it, but when they realize they are capable, it brings their self-esteem up. We do all kinds of different things, we take them out on the land to learn bush skills, and in town we teach them life skills. We help them deal with issues such as anger and self esteem. We have a morning circle each day, and we check in with each other to see how we are progressing each day.”

“This program has been in place since 1999. There are 2 teachers, Mr. Brown takes care of the academics like English and Math. We try to get resources in to speak of their background to encourage kids to go back to school. I help them with their problems, I try to be there for them to talk with them and to make them feel better.”

“Sometimes people ask me how I could work so much with youth, and I just tell them: you sleep like them, you eat like them, you talk like them, and you are around them so much, when you go out and try to associate yourself with other adults, it’s almost hard to adjust. I prefer working with youth because it keeps me going.”

Kurt Wainman and his company

Northwind Industries stand out for a reason. The man and his company are fully integrated, and if you like his personal style: a straight talking, good-humored Inuvialuit with a strong sense of fairness and responsibility towards both his work and his people, you will like his company.

“I put more miles on this truck daily than most people do in a week,” Kurt said. We are in his truck, on a tour of his facilities and company. He points out the properties and businesses he is affiliated with. Kurt is constantly on the move and being consulted on his cell phone and CB radio, checking in with his employees and clients at different job sites, or being hands-on in the projects themselves.

His company specializes in a diversified array of services: oil field contracting, explosives, ice road construction and maintenance, heavy equipment, trucking, rig moving, gravel hauling, subdivision building, automotive and body repairs. Northwind also has a contract with the Town of Inuvik in storm removal and sanding. During storm season, they worked “everywhere and everyday.” Kurt also runs Northern Impact Energy Services and Beaufort Logistics. He is a partner of Highland North Helicopters.

“Up north, you have to do everything. Well, a little bit of everything,” Kurt explained, “It’s like that here. When we’re trucking and dealing with heavy equipment, we need to work with automotives and have a body shop to repair the equipment, because nobody else is going to come up here to repair it for us.”

Kurt believes in self-reliance. He does not possess formal certification, but ever since he was playing with wrenches and welding equipment at the age of fourteen, he made sure to “watch and learn” from his dad, a heavy equipment operator and truck driver. He found he had the “hydraulic touch” and was soon a tire man, a laborer, a tow truck driver, a loader operator and more. “The list goes on,” said Kurt. “I worked with a company in town for 12 years, and learnt how to do everything else on my own.”

He believes “not everything is handed to you,” although some people attribute his success to anything but hard work. “I am pretty strong on that. This is all self made, I worked to get what I want. With each job I worked on, I took the money I made and reinvested it in the company.” He did not use financial loans until two years ago. “My company started getting really big, and I wanted bigger toys, so I thought, well…” He laughs. “I started up with one truck, and now I have 50 to 60 trucks.”

To remain competitive, he focuses on “Raising the bar everyday”. His business is fully Inuvialuit owned and operated, but he still has to bid against large southern companies for projects. He tries to focus on getting “newer equipment, more training, better safety, more jobs for local people, and to give employees the best so they can do the best job possible.”

He now hires about 25 employees locally and about 8 down south. At one point, he had 75 employees. The number of people he hires depends on the work season. It is important for him to hire locally. His hiring circle begins in Inuvik, Tuktoyaktuk, the rest of the ISR and extends out as far as Edmonton. He pays his employees well and provides incentives, such as a safe enviroment and uniforms that help them work comfortably in the harsh climate.

“Communication is the biggest thing for a company this size. You must have safety meetings, hear concerns, recognize that everyone is different and communicate accordingly. A lot of my employees are people I’ve known for a long time. Their ages range from 19 to 60. If somebody wants to work and we know he has a good background, we’ll hire him.” He does not discriminate whether they are Inuvialuit, Gwich’in or Northerners.

“For every experienced worker, we also take on one or two inexperienced ones to train our own people. We supply equipment for Aurora College’s training program and one of our senior operators, Davey Lennie, trains the students. He teaches them the proper work procedures and ethics. People who took the program could be hired to work for us.” He also pointed out that the Northern infrastructure needs people with skills, and there is a very high demand for more apprentices and training. His sense of fairness encompasses his business and his life. “I like to lay it flat on the table and see the best man win. In the last couple of years, I see big companies wrestle little guys like me. I see big companies from the south get jobs that Northerners could have gotten but there’s not much I can do.”

“I am self-made and I voice my opinion without fear. If everyone could talk like that, we’ll have a much better world.” This led him to run for Mayor in 2004, because he did not want the position to be acclaimed. It was a surprise to him, but his first run at politics actually drew the best turnout in history for voting in Inuvik. He only lost by 78 votes.

Northwind Industries is approaching its 10 th anniversary next year, and Kurt is looking forward to it, but he does not promise an extravagant party. “If I am working, I won’t have time for celebrating.” Then, in a more serious tone he added, “I’m really shy at the public stuff. I just do what I do.” He spends most of his time working, “I still work 7 days a week”, and otherwise stays home or works on his cabin, a task he finds relaxing.

Despite his busy schedule, Kurt takes time to be involved with youth. He sponsors a number of hockey, baseball, curling and wrestling teams. “I believe the kids are our future, and they should benefit from businesses like us. One day they might be working with me or for me. I like contributing to the communities.”

Whatwould he say to youth who aspire to be successful? “Finish School, get up in the morning! There’s a lot of potential in this town, you just have to work for it. You can’t have everything handed to you. I didn’t have a perfect life. I was in trouble, lots, and even went to jail a few times. But I survived. I’ve had my ups and downs, I am a normal person like everybody else.”

“You just have to get out of bed everyday and keep going forward. That’s what I did. One year was really crucial to me, and it was about 4 years ago. I was up from 6 in the morning till midnight everyday for 8 months. It was a make or break point. I could quit, sell everything and break even or I could work my tail off, purchase all my equipment, and own it all. Either way I would be left with no money.” He chose the second option, and then “decided I just have to work harder now that I owned everything.”

As for the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Project, Kurt looks forward to the opportunities. “I started my company because of the oil and gas industry, and without the pipeline I am not going to carry on,” he said. “But I am not like the pipeline, it’s here today, gone tomorrow. The first oil boom was ending when I was being raised. It wasn’t great, but I love being here, this is my hometown. I just want to stay in the ISR, and work on the exploration and drilling projects.”

“Not all of the jobs from the pipeline will last forever, but there are interesting parts, like building the highway to Tuktoyaktuk. There is a lot of good that will only come if the pipeline goes through. We need to stop arguing about it. If it doesn’t work out, it’s not a big loss to those down the valley; it’s a big loss to us up here. I said to the Globe and Mail, you don’t see any hayfields or wheat fields here. All the natural resources we have are oil and gas. If we don’t use it we’ll just go back to being small and quiet, marginally existing.”

Ultimately, Kurt’s goal for Northwind is to “ show everyone down south we are not just a little Northern operation. We want to be successful, bigger, better, and we want to run our own territory instead of letting someone from down south take over. We want to keep our part of the pie. We don’t want it to go down south.”