I had a pretty surreal Canada Day up here in Pangnirtung. It started with a Mountie in full dress uniform unfurling the flag, surrounded by the local Inuit folk. These remote communities don't have municipal police forces, the RCMP are also the local cops, but they have the complete red tunic, riding boots and hat outfit ready to break out for ceremonial occasions. The Full Mountie, so to speak. Then a circle of Inuit elders, children and others sang Oh Canada. "Our home and native land." Literally in this case. It's a bit weird to see these people celebrating the political union of a bunch of French and English colonists a thousand miles south of them a hundred and forty odd years ago. I suppose it's a bit weird to see me celebrate it too, my parents are from Australia.
Then people climbed up on the roof of the church and threw down handfuls of candy. But this is not your typical urban pinata party, first of all they throw so much candy so hard that it's like being pelted with gravel, and secondly, when that candy hits the ground they are serious competitors. Not just the children, either, one elderly lady who couldn't bend down fast enough to beat the kids swarming around her feet was starting to look pretty intense. Finally the slammed her foot down on a couple of candies and got at least some of her share, but it was clear that noone was going to be cutting her any slack.
Photos by Ulla Lohmann
In the evening they held a feast out by the water, with hot dogs, slices of raw beluga, and an entire seal, cut open and covered with blueberries. There was still a Canadian flag flapping here and there, but this part of the festivities isn't really about celebrating Canada any more, it's about celebrating family, friends, and perhaps most of all, food. It's nice to be able to attend, and many people are delightful, warm and friendly to us. Not everyone, though. I think a lot of TV crews come through here and some people are a bit sick of being documented by outsiders. One group spoke up pretty sharply to say they didn't want to be photographed. But afterwards another young guy made a point of coming over. "Don't mind them," he said, "some people are just like that." I didn't actually mind them, in fact, people are entitled not to be photographed if they want, but I did appreciate him wanting to make sure I didn't feel bad about it. Nice.
The food itself is another touchy issue. These people hunt seal and whale, and there has been a lot of negative attention down south directed at those two hunts in particular. When seal fur got banned in Europe, a lot of people up here lost the thing that was keeping their family fed. And media attention was what helped that happen. People like me. I have many possible reasons to be unpopular here, other than my unusually irritating personality, most places I don't have such handy ready-made excuses at hand, so I appreciate that.
Photos by Ulla Lohmann
John the cameraman was happily filming the raw seal and blueberries. For him having something visually interesting like that is like a feast in its own right, he'd stay there all day if I let him, but I was starting to be aware that we might look as if that was the only thing we cared about. One woman left the lineup for hot dogs and came over to me. "Are you Greenpeace?" She asked. "No," I said, "not Greenpeace." In a slightly disgusted tone, as if she'd asked me if I had any crack for sale. "All, right, high five!" she said, and we slapped hands. Easiest high five I ever earned. All it takes is to not be from Greenpeace. So, hunting is an issue we clearly need to cover somehow. Maybe people are protecting the wrong animals sometimes for the wrong reasons. Seals got protected because baby seals are cute, for example. People care about whales and dolphins because they've heard they are as intelligent as humans. But I understand that has turned out not to be correct, I believe dolphins are now considered to be closer in intelligence to a pig maybe.
Pigs are fairly intelligent animals, of course, and baby pigs are very cute.
Save the Pigs.
Then people climbed up on the roof of the church and threw down handfuls of candy. But this is not your typical urban pinata party, first of all they throw so much candy so hard that it's like being pelted with gravel, and secondly, when that candy hits the ground they are serious competitors. Not just the children, either, one elderly lady who couldn't bend down fast enough to beat the kids swarming around her feet was starting to look pretty intense. Finally the slammed her foot down on a couple of candies and got at least some of her share, but it was clear that noone was going to be cutting her any slack.
In the evening they held a feast out by the water, with hot dogs, slices of raw beluga, and an entire seal, cut open and covered with blueberries. There was still a Canadian flag flapping here and there, but this part of the festivities isn't really about celebrating Canada any more, it's about celebrating family, friends, and perhaps most of all, food. It's nice to be able to attend, and many people are delightful, warm and friendly to us. Not everyone, though. I think a lot of TV crews come through here and some people are a bit sick of being documented by outsiders. One group spoke up pretty sharply to say they didn't want to be photographed. But afterwards another young guy made a point of coming over. "Don't mind them," he said, "some people are just like that." I didn't actually mind them, in fact, people are entitled not to be photographed if they want, but I did appreciate him wanting to make sure I didn't feel bad about it. Nice.
The food itself is another touchy issue. These people hunt seal and whale, and there has been a lot of negative attention down south directed at those two hunts in particular. When seal fur got banned in Europe, a lot of people up here lost the thing that was keeping their family fed. And media attention was what helped that happen. People like me. I have many possible reasons to be unpopular here, other than my unusually irritating personality, most places I don't have such handy ready-made excuses at hand, so I appreciate that.
John the cameraman was happily filming the raw seal and blueberries. For him having something visually interesting like that is like a feast in its own right, he'd stay there all day if I let him, but I was starting to be aware that we might look as if that was the only thing we cared about. One woman left the lineup for hot dogs and came over to me. "Are you Greenpeace?" She asked. "No," I said, "not Greenpeace." In a slightly disgusted tone, as if she'd asked me if I had any crack for sale. "All, right, high five!" she said, and we slapped hands. Easiest high five I ever earned. All it takes is to not be from Greenpeace. So, hunting is an issue we clearly need to cover somehow. Maybe people are protecting the wrong animals sometimes for the wrong reasons. Seals got protected because baby seals are cute, for example. People care about whales and dolphins because they've heard they are as intelligent as humans. But I understand that has turned out not to be correct, I believe dolphins are now considered to be closer in intelligence to a pig maybe.
Pigs are fairly intelligent animals, of course, and baby pigs are very cute.
Save the Pigs.
beautifully written and so nice to read. I love the comments about pigs, they always were your favourite animal, and I know all about their amazing intelligence.I helped raise them when I was a kid on the farm and when I was an adult on another farm. Now I am looking forward to seeing some pictures.Glad you had a happy Cana
ReplyDeleteda day, so did I, with others from your family!!!!