Sachs Harbour Christmas Feast 2018

Sachs Harbour Christmas Feast 2018

On Christmas Day, despite the cold, families load up gifts on their sleds and skidoo around town to visit their aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins and all friends and relatives. There are no scheduled appointments here. You just show up, and it’s no surprise to anyone when you do. The invitation is always open, especially on holidays.

Joey and Margaret Carpenter are a welcoming couple. Margaret works on her embroidery while Joey cooks a meal for his dog, whose barking prompts an apology from Joey.

Joey Carpenter

I was born here and left at four to go to school. You know the story. I came back as a teenager and lived here on and off, before coming back for good about 30 years ago.

If you like going out on the land, this is the best place to be. Go out the door, jump on the skidoo and it’s right there. You don’t have to go too far. I’m getting too old to hunt much now. I used to hunt with dog teams. There’s a lot of preparation with dogs. You have to look after them, make sure they’re well fed. You’ve got to have a sled, dog line, harness. Hitching up your dogs and going out on the land, I don’t know how to describe it. It’s a good feeling.

In the dog-team days, 10-day trips were the minimum. In those days, we looked at time differently. Everything’s fast now. On a skidoo, you can go to hunting grounds in a couple hours and probably come back the same day. With a dog team, it takes longer.

One time, I went hunting by skidoo with my older brother, his son and one of our cousins to the Nelson Head area, about 100 miles from here along the coast. I was hunting polar bear and we crossed a crack in the ice less than a mile offshore. My brother and my cousin looked through the crack to check the current. We were so desperate to catch a polar bear that we crossed that crack and reached the rough ice about half a mile away. We got on the rough ice and started looking around, and when we got back, the crack had stretched to about 30 yards wide. That’s how fast it opened.

So we got stranded and drifted out all night. There was a big ocean not too far from us. It was a scary night. In those days, 40 or 50 below was quite common. We were lucky the wind died down and we drifted back towards land. The next morning, the ice had frozen over and was thick enough to cross back over. We were lucky, really lucky. And on the way back, we got a polar bear.

Joey says he’s 17 years sober, and his advice to live a happy life is not to drink. He calls it a blessing not to have to deal with the repercussions of drinking.

Margaret’s hands are always busy with her embroidery, but her fascination started with simply observing.

Margaret Carpenter

When my mother was sewing or cutting out material, I’d always be there. I’d sit there and watch. I remember far back when my parents lived in a log house. For light, they’d use whale oil lamps. Long ago, we had no power, no furnace, no running water. Just a wood stove.

My sisters’ friends used to gather. There were about four of them, and they’d all be sewing, doing their embroidery for special occasions like Christmas, Easter or a wedding. They’d be doing their embroidery for shoes or parkas, and I’d stay up on the bed just watching them. I only really got into sewing myself after I got married.

I’m originally from Tuktoyaktuk. Sachs Harbour is nice and peaceful, quiet. I like travelling on the land in springtime, going fishing or geese hunting.

Margaret Carpenter

I worked at the nursing station for 15 years and retired two years back. Now I just stay home and do my sewing. It keeps me occupied.

I like the people here. They’re friendly. They help us out so much with food and whatever we need. They’re always there. Everybody’s willing to give a hand when we need it. They bring us ice and native food. They share, and that feels so good in a small community like this.

It took me about a year to stop feeling so homesick. I overcame that by getting busy working and sewing. After more than 20 years, I feel like the community has become part of my family. I like that feeling inside, to be wanted, needed. It made me try harder. I was kind of a shy person, and I overcame that during the years I was up here. It may look like nothing’s happening up here, but there are many things to do. It’s peaceful, it’s comfortable.

Down south, everything’s too fast. Always rushing here or rushing there. If you live up north, you don’t have to rush. We take our time doing things. By the time it’s time for you to go somewhere, you have everything done and you’ve got time to go to your appointment or meeting.

Day to day is always a struggle. Everything is so expensive. Things don’t come easy. We’ve got to work for it. There’s no way we can save money in these small communities. I think it is more expensive than down south. We’ve got to make do with what we have. It’s a good thing we’re natives, because we’re used to our kind of food – fish, seal, whale, caribou, muskox. You can’t save a penny in these small communities. We live from day to day. We’re happy so long as we have a roof over our head, food to eat. That’s all that matters. That’s our survival up north.

Those are only five stories. For such a small place, Sachs Harbour is wealthy in many ways, from abundant animals to wide-open land and community resilience.

It might be slower than a city in the south, but that doesn’t mean life is easy. Through love for the land and their relationships with each other, the people find a way to make it work.

That’s life in Ikahuak, ‘where you go across to.’