Community Updates

Many came out on Parks Day in Paulatuk, to enjoy the canoe races and a good feast!

Once again, hello to all readers! First of all, I’m thinking of all my brother and sisters, nephews and nieces, because our dad, Obe Anikina’s death anniversary is July 27th . We really miss you dad, even after all these years. Every season we picture you getting ready to go out and hunt for us; we had everything with you, and all your love. Love you, Dad, and love you too mum!

The weather in Paulatuk is beautiful, but already the days are getting shorter and there are fewer mosquitoes. Fall is getting near, seems like everything is two weeks early this year. We had a very short spring, but we harvested enough geese and lots of caribou. Even now, there are some for harvesting.

A lot of people are still out camping at Egg Island and Brock Riverside. Last week, four whales were caught around Sukvak and Billy’s creek. There’s lots of maktak around town, and also lots of char and whitefish! Ray and Bella, Garrett and Olga, Liz, Annie Illasiak and their families have been at Egg Island since June and they are still there, making dry fish and waiting for whales. There’s been no luck yet, the men have gone out towards Cape Parry to try but we haven’t heard any news of them getting whales. Good luck to you hunters! Day after day people are coming in from traveling and the gathering of food for the winter, such as siksiks or other living creatures, either from across the bay or the ocean.

Aboriginal Day went well, there was a lot to eat! A whole caribou was cut up for cooking, and there was smoke tea, hamburgers and hotdogs. Another event was Parks Day at Water Lake. We teamed up, and had canoe races, Parks trivia contests, and of course, more to eat! Social worker

Sandra won a nice green fleece jacket with the Parks' logo, she was thrilled. It was a going away gift too, as she’s leaving at the end of the month. Lucky lady!

The Jamboree is scheduled for August 11th to the 14th . The barge is due around then too. School starts August 9 th ; we’ve already hired a new principal, and are still looking for two more teachers. There’s not much time left, but we’re trying our best. Time is flying. It seems like the children just got off school. In the coming year, we need to get the help of parents to improve the children’s attendance. We would like to know how other schools deal with the situation. We need to get parents, teachers and students to realize you NEED education nowadays, we will never survive with just on the land knowledge. There is too much technology! The younger generation will have to get their act together and make sure they go to school. We even have pre-school for younger children, and we sure can notice the difference with them.

We had a major fire earlier in July. The fire siren awakened us around 3 a.m., when the old vacant store caught fire. The fire was in a couple of compartments so it burned till morning. It’s located right in the middle of town right by the beach side. I think that’s where the jamboree events will happen. There’s a lot of room now where it used to be.

There was a Parks trip for August 1st to the 4th . Children will be taken out by plane and will be in a park with chaperones for a few days. What a good holiday for the children, and a good break for the parents too! The children will get to enjoy the great outdoors and the good weather before school begins.

We gave Peter Malgokak, Mayor of Ulukhaktok a call, to find out the latest news in his community. “There’s really not too much going on until the barge comes in,” he said, “it’s arriving in two days, and the community will have their supplies topped up then, it’s a good way to save money.”

“It has been really good weather, really dry with hardly any rain, so it was great for the Billy Joss Golf Tournament. The ice is all gone.”

As for hunting, he said, “Hunters have been going to Prince Albert Sound for mainland caribous, they are pretty fat this year. There is also lots of fishing, we’ve got good char now.” for of all was and with the fresh char that’s in Ulukhaktok right now, there’s plenty to feast on too!

“There was a camp for youth and elders, organized by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, for those who found it hard to go out by themselves on the land. There was also a language camp for older and younger kids, funded by the IRC.” Rangers were also in town for a week in August, training out on the land. GNME is about to wrap up their mining activities for the season. They mine for copper and nickel. Peter said they provide good employment opportunities and the local wildlife monitors help keep the environment safe.

We asked Joanne Eldridge to give us an update on Sachs Harbour. She told us the following:

The barge just came in recently, so everybody’s getting their supplies. There’s another barge that they are bringing in for the first time, and I guess it’s for the tank farm , they’re changing the tanks at the gas station. We’re busy all over Sachs Harbour right now. The power is out right now because Northwestel is working on powerlines right now. Lois Harwood of DFO has a seal project going on up here, it’s going well. and there will be a char study in the next month or so. There’s also a lot of caribou coming closer down, and they are nice and fat. We don’t know what’s going on, if the numbers are going up, but it is nice to see them so fat and healthy.

There are animals everywhere; we haven’t seen rabbits for a long time, I guess they come around in cycles, but now we have them everywhere, we see them even running around the shops and the powercorp. There are foxes galore too. Wolves, lots of people are sealing and fishing mostly, and Parry caribou hunting.

At the community corp we have been busy with meetings.

Andy and Winnie Carpenter, my parents had their 50 th wedding anniversary on the 30 th August. We had a big feast for them.

There was also a torch run for the Canada Winter Games. School starts early for Sachs Harbour, on the 7th August. Students are back in school, but most of the younger kids are still in Inuvik for the swim camp, they are escorted by Doreen Carpenter. School’s going well, we’re still two teachers short. We just boosted the positions to two full time jobs (from 1.8), so the school’s using mostly substitute teachers. The recreation department has lots planned for the summer too, it helps keep the youth entertained!