Visitors from North take in southern sights

Page 18

There are no cattle, pigs or horses on Sanikiluak, the only inhabited island in Hudson Bay's Belcher Islands.

So when 12 Inuit educators from the remote island - which is now part of Nunavut, Canada's newest territory - visited Owen Sound, Ont., one of the highlights of their trip was a stop at a livestock market.

"Many of our group had never seen a cow before, so it was very exciting. Our island is flat tundra with no trees," said Lisi Kavik, vice principal of Nuivak school on the island.

The island's 700 residents live on seal, reindeer and fish. Any other kind of meat has to be flown in and is very expensive, said Kavik.

Kelly Ryan, who was raised in Owen Sound and is a Grade 8/9 teacher at Nuivak school, always hoped her fellow teachers would be able to visit her parent's home in Owen Sound, but the cost of chartering a plane was prohibitive.

Then in early February they heard that a plane from Montreal was going to land on the island and they could get a ride for $11,000 - about a third of the normal cost.

"We didn't have much time to make plans, but it was too good of an opportunity to miss," said Ryan.

For some of the Inuit, it was the first time they had been off the island so everything was new to them, said Kavik.

While many people consider the weather in Owen Sound, which is located in the snow-belt region of southern Georgian Bay, very cold, the Inuit thought it was balmy, she said.

The temperature when they arrived at the Owen Sound airport was hovering around 0 C, which was about 3 degrees warmer than the weather they had left behind on Sanikiluak.

"The people here think we are crazy, but we're all wearing T-shirts because to us it's very warm," Kavik said.

Owen Sound is a small city of 20,000, but to the Inuit it seemed very crowded.

"We visited a school this morning that has 1,100 students and another this afternoon that has 700. It was shocking to us because we only have 700 people on our whole island," Kavik said.

Her people hunt and fish and the only industry is making soap stone carvings.

"We don't get many visitors, but we manage fine," she said.

While her parents and grandparents were punished for speaking their own language when they went to school, students are now taught in Inuktitut until Grade 4.

"It used to be only the Elders who spoke our language. Now all the children speak it."

There are no banks on the island and only one school, two stores and one church. Any items flown in are very expensive. A bottle of coke that sells for 79 cents in Owen Sound is more than $7 on the island and cigarettes are $8 a pack.

The 12 educators found the trip to Owen Sound, which was part of their professional development week, very enlightening. It also gave them an opportunity to study teaching methods at the schools they visited.

They also tried swimming at an indoor pool. There are no indoor pools on the island and Hudson Bay rarely gets warm enough for swimming, even in mid-summer, said Kavik.

The island has its own radio station and most people have televisions and can get satellite service.

Most of the homes on the island have electricity and running water, but are considerably smaller than the homes in Owen Sound.

Family traditions are very strong amongst the islanders, so two and three generations live in the same home.

"The young are following the traditions of living with their parents and grandparents, which is just as well because we have a housing shortage anyway," said Kavik.