Nunavut blog: By Jaffa Road
During the last week of June and the First week of July our band Jaffa Road had the incredible opportunity of touring in Nunavut Canada’s newest territory. This was an unusual and exceptional experience for a group of touring musicians from Southern Canada. Formed in 1999, Nunavut (formerly the Eastern half of the North-West Territories) represents the largest ever land claims settlement between a post-colonial government and Aboriginal peoples. Inhabited mostly by Inuit people its population is only 30 000. It is the size of Western Europe making it one of the most sparsely populated habitable regions of the planet. It isolated from the rest of Canada by its geography. One can can only reach Nunavut by plane (or by boat during the two months of each year that the sea ice is melted). The are no roads to Nunavut and no roads with in Nunavut. No two Nunavut communities are connected by road. Air travel is required for any travel between hamlets. The scenery is incredible and incredibly varied. In the summer the 24 hours of day light provides ample opportunity to enjoy the natural beauty of the place. We visited two communities; Iqaluit and Igloolik to play a total of five sets at two different music festivals; to collaborate with other visting artists; and to teach a couple of workshops. Both festivals where amazing but also very different from each other. Our amazing three days in Iqaluit included a festival performance (at the annual Alainait festival), a Canada Day (July 1) performance, a workshop, a collaborative performance with all the other visiting artists, bonfires under the midnight sun, exceptional food, many new friends, an appearance (interview and live studio performance) on Nunavut CBC radio, a wonderful hike in the gorgeous Silvia Grinell River Territorial park, site seeing, parties in the homes of festival board members, midnight bonfires on the tundra, and a visit to a Jewish /Inuit fishing camp on the Silvia Grinell River.
Many thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts for its generous support of our travel expenses to Iqaluit.
I wrote this blog to partly document this amazing trip and to share some highlights of the trip with friends, family and fans.
We played the Alianait arts festival and the Canada Day (July 1) celebrations in Iqaluit – the capital “city” of Nunavut (Pop. 6000), (Alianait is the Inuktitut word for “celebrate”). This shot of the stage projection screen was taken from the backstage area.
The Alainait (Inuktitut for “celebrate”) festival takes place every year in Iqaluit. It features musicians from Nunavut, polar regions of other countries, the “South” and the Canadian Arctic. It also features film and visual arts from the Arctic and sub Arctic regions. Iqaluit is the capital city with about 6000 residents it is much more multi-cultural a place than I expected it to be. At Ailiant we shared the stage with “Southern” (ie. From Ottawa) musicians such as The Mighty Popo, and Galitcha, and Connecticut based Caravan of Theives, and some Inuktitut musicians well known in the Canadian Arctic for their brand of Inuktitut Country music such as Paul and Sons, and Charlie Panigoniak. Thanks to Ed Maruyama for these Alainat photos.
Final act of the Canada day concert in Iqaluit- A collaborative performance between Jaffa Road, Galitcha, Mighty Popo, and Caravan of Theives,
We were exposed to, and learned about the richness of Inuit culture. Both festivals featured some interesting Inuit artists from other parts of Nunavut. We got to hangout, check out each others work and get to know each other. We also get to hang out with and hear some great bands from “The South”
Our last night in Iqaluit - The Nunavut Francophone association hosted a party / jam session. One more chance to hang with the other artists. Popo and Aviva got to sing together.
We experienced the 24 hours of continuous day light in the land of the midnight sun. Iqaluit is just south of the Arctic circle, so during the summer months the sun sets briefly but not long enough for the sky to get dark. Igloolik is north of the Arctic circle so the sun gets low in the sky at night and creates long shadows, but for 3-4 months of the summer it remains up in the sky. No darkness. After the shows we hung out with some of the other artists at Bonfire on “The Road to Nowhere”. Roads go out from the town a few km and then just end. Here is Aviva enjoying a sunrise at a post show bonfire in Iqaluit - this shot was taken around 3:00 AM.
Before we even arrived in Nunavut, Aviva got an e-mail from Kalman, a friend of a friend of hers. Kalman, lives in Iqaluit, is married to an Inuit woman named Susan, and invited us to come see /hang out/ hike around at their fishing camp on the banks of the Slvia Grinnel River, a short 10 minute drive from town. We had a great time meeting the family, tasting freshly caught ( thanks Susan) Arctic Char and hiking around the park.
Thanks to Heather, Janet, Lorne and the Alainait team for getting us to Iqaluit. We had an amazing 3.5 days in Iqaluit.
If you fly a further 2.5 hours further North West. You will get to Igloolik, a small Inuit Hamlet on Foxe Basin. Igloolik was having their first annual Rocking Walrus Festival and Jaffa Road was lucky and honoured to be invited to be one of the visiting groups.
Even the flight to Igloolik was pretty stunning as we watched the ocean morph to sea ice from the air.
The Igloolik airport is a pretty informal affair.
On arrival dinner included some really fresh DIY, arctic char sashimi.
In Igloolik we played the most remote music/arts festival in North America – the first annual Rocking Walrus festival in Igloolik, Nunavut. Thanks to the Montreal based journalist, Maro Pfieff for the photo below. And thanks to Maren Vsteula and the community of igloolik for getting us there and hosting us so well. There was an outdoor stage for the afternoon shows and an indoor stage (in the local school) for the evening shows. The outdoor stage was right up against the local radio station, and all the sound gear was wired into the radio station and broadcast on local radio to the town.
I had a free moment to take a few shots from the outdoor stage while Sundar was soloing: Check out the sea ice about 100m past the audience.
In Igloolik we had the chance to collaborating with Inuit artists such as Aaju Peter, Charlie Panigoniak, Paul Irsuk, and Kaiva from all over Nunavut and the Funky Mamas from Guelph at the Rocking Walrus festival.
Aaju is an Inuit woman form Greenland who lives in Iqaluit. She is a lawyer, fashion designer (she designed the seal skin coat for the former Governor General) has done some really interesting writing, and activism around protecting Inuit hunting rights.
We learned alot about the politics of the seal hunt.
In Igloolik we had the opportunity to go for hikes on the Tundra under the bright Midnight Sun at 1:30 Am (The Sun did not go down the for the whole week we were there).
Our hike took us out to the Hamlet cemetery.
These shots all taken around midnight
On the way home from the hike we ran into lots of kids playing in the streets (around 2:00 AM).
Igloolik Tour for Visiting Artists
On our second day in Igloolik, Maren Vistula (director of Recreation in the hamlet, and festival founder/ co-ordinator) invited all the visiting artists on a tour of the town and surrounding areas. The tourists were Jaffa Road, The Funky Mamas (from Guelph), Kaiva (a Nunavut based hip hop dance performance crew that fuses Hip Hop with traditional drumming and dancing), Charlie Panigoniak. (an Inuit Elder/ CBC Inuktitut radio announcer / Inuktitut country Singer), Paul and Sons (an Inuktitut Country band from) Arviat, Jolly Atagoyuk (an exceptional print maker from Pond Inlet), Hugh and Ruth Tullurialik, from Baker Lake, the only inland Inuit community.
The highlight of the tour was hanging out on a beach about 15 minute drive outside of the town. At the beach a number of Inuit families had set up prospector tents or small cabins. Our guide said that people come here to get out of town and go hunting for the weekend “it is our Muskoka”.
We enjoyed walking on the frozen ocean, hoping around and playing teeter toter on ice floes, taking mountains of photographs and getting to know each other. Then one of the local Inuit families brought a freshly caught seal over to group. I was amazed at how quickly and efficiently theygot it ready for eating.
To urban people of the south the idea of hunting, and eating raw seal meat may seem strange. However, Inuit people have lived in an almost permanently frozen and barren landscape for the last 4 000 years. There is no possible way to grow crops in land that is always frozen and covered in darkness for half the year. Shipping produce in from the south still impractical as there as no roads to connect the various communities to each other, and the seas are frozen for more than half the year. The Inuit owe their survival to the seal and they are well aware of it. They use every possible part of the animal for something. In days gone by the seal was not just a food source but the raw materials for clothes and oil lamps to light the igloos during 6 months of darkness. I must admit that the pungent and fishy flavor of raw seal meat did not appeal to me, but I was very grateful that I got to taste it.
Here are some other cool shots from our day at the beach:
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I was sleeping in after being up late on our second last day in Igloolik so I missed the chance to go with Aviva, Kaiva, and the Funky Mamas on a morning hike to visit the big Inukshuks out side of the town.
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We met alot of memorable people here are some of the unforgettable faces that we got to meet.
- Me , Elder Mary and Maren Vsetula, the Director of the festival and our main contact person in Igloolik
- Elder Mary had a tent at the outdoor part of the festival. She was talking about and demonstrating some aspects of traditional Inuit life, including cooking bannock over a seal oil lamp.
- Self Portrait of me with some cast members of the film Atanajurat, the award winning film that was the first feature film to be shot entirely in the Inuktitut language – Highly recommended. Abraham is the guy in the Middle, he played the Shaman in the movie.
- Some kids I met out side of the “Hookie” dance at around 2:00 Am. Hookie dance is a traditional, high energy square dance.William (see below) theorizes that it was brought to Inuit culture decades ago by European whaling expeditions.
- Aviva is holding “Elder Rachel" at 2 weeks old she was the youngest person we met in Igloolik. Named after a cherished Elder who passed away recently.
- Good times for Aviva at the Hookie dance
- William is an interesting researcher / research assistant that we met. He works for the government as a transcriber /translator. He has an archive of hundreds of recordings of Elder’s sharing traditional knowledge. He writes it down and translates it into English. He was also very involved as a festival volunteer, making alot of things happen. Thanks William.
- Gordon. You know it is a small town, when your airline baggage handler is also your airline check it guy, is also the soundman at the festival you just played at, is also the guitar player in one of the other bands. Thanks for all your help Gordon.
- Marc was a festival volunteer and announcer on the local radio station.
- Sundar and Abraham – the Shaman from Antanajurat
- Some kids we met building a sand castle in the street at 2:00 AM
- Christopher trys to make us laugh
- Some cute kids we met at the beach in the middle of town
My Inuit Cousin Connection
When we landed in Igloolik a school bus picked us up at the airport. Eric was an Inuit guy and festival volunteer who was on the bus to show us around. We dropped off our bags at the house we had been given and when Eric took us on a walk around town, we stopped at his house. He was showing us some family pics on the wall. HE pointed to a pic of a young man in a graduation gown and said " That is my wife's son Adam Lightstone"I said that is weird, I am Aaron Lightstone, I was not sure that he knew my last name yet. I thought it was a strange coincidence but sort of wrote it off. I figured that if I did in fact have an Inuit cousin, then some one would have mentioned this in passing to me before I left for Nunavut. I said to the band " There are a bunch of Lightstone's in Montreal that we are not related to, he must be connected with them."
Still when I got back to the house I called my mom.
"Do I have a cousin Adam, in Kingston Ontario, whose mother is Inuit?"
Without pause my mother said "Yes, Micah". She was married to your father's cousin Michael (who I have not met) and they had a son named Adam.
Micah is in fact Eric's wife, and was also an important festival volunteer as she was doing alot of the cooking for performers and volunteers.
Eric MCed the events and translated any English spoken from the stage into Inuktitut.
- Photo of Adam Lightstone’s high school graduation on the wall at Eric and Micah’s house
- Micah and her adopted infant Eli
- Me hanging out with Eli
- Isaiah (Micah’s other son) carrying Eli in the traditional Amoutik (baby carrier)
I say refreshing because I have worked and traveled amongst other groups of Aboriginal people in Canada and always heard the same story: about how the indigenous language is almost gone, very few native speakers are left, some dedicated young people are passionate about preserving it, but it is an uphill battle and the language is very endangered. So I say refreshing because that is NOT what I observed in Iqaluit and Igloolik. Many people seemed to be very fluent, the CBC has entire programs broadcast in Inkutiut, and we were provided with translators so that our stage banter could be translated.
Aaron and Paul at the Igloolik airport waiting for the flight back to Iqaluit
Aaron and Charlie getting ready to leave Igloolik.
Charlie and Paul - Performing at the Alainait festival.
On our last night in Igloolik, Charlie invited me to sing with him, he would not tell me what we where going to sing, just that I would pick it up quick. He brought me up to the stage to sing a “repeat after me” song. It was all in Inuktitut and a real tongue twister. I am pretty sure I did not pronounce a single word correctly. The crowd got a pretty solid laugh out of my attempt to follow along with Charlie.
Signs in Nunavut
Whenever I travel I like to take pictures of signs that I find interesting, unusual, or humorous.
There are still lots more stories to share, I hope to add to this blog with some video when I get a chance to edit some that I shot.
Anyway many thanks to all the other artists we met along the way, the organizers of both festivals and the Canada Council for the Arts.
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