Nunavut Communities, 1999Cape Dorset, Nunavut
The following narrative was developed by a group of approximately twelve students who are enrolled in Grades 7, 8, and 9 at Peter Pitseolak School. Though their skills and abilities vary widely, a majority of these pupils are presently following Individual Education Plans predicated upon well-documented learning difficulties.
For us, the creation of Nunavut means our land - Nunavut - for our people - the Inuit. Inuit means "the people". We are the people. Nunavut means an election on February 15. It means ten provinces and three territories instead of ten provinces and two territories. Our teacher says that Nunavut means the final settlement of Inuit land claims. Some of us say, "It means nothing to me".
Cape Dorset is a community of about 1200 people. It is located on Dorset Island, just off the coast of the Foxe Peninsula in the southwest corner of Baffin Island. Cape Dorset is named for the Dorset people, who lived here before the Thule, who lived here before the Inuit. The Inuktitut name for Cape Dorset is Kingait, which means "This Mountain". The hamlet of Kingait lies along the shore of "Kangirsuk", in the shadow of Kingait Mountain.
The best things about Cape Dorset are the summer and winter weather, carving, the stores, especially "the Northern", and school. Other favourite things are hunting, fishing, sliding, berry-picking, visiting, playing ball, skating on Dead Dog Lake, and snowmobiling in the spring. Cape Dorset is a special place because of the kind people (like Annie Salomonie’s mom) who live here. In Cape Dorset we make the best tea and bannock in Canada.
We would like to make Cape Dorset bigger and better. If we could change anything we would build bigger houses and bigger stores, and more apartments. We would have no dump and no garbage all around. We want to have more taxis or a bus in Cape Dorset.
The people of Cape Dorset do many things for a living. They work at our stores, our schools, the nursing station, the daycare centre, and our Social Services office. The biggest employer in town is the Hamlet of Cape Dorset. We also participate in many traditional activities like hunting, fishing, and trapping. Women sew kamiks, mitts, and amautis. They also make jewellery. Teenagers often babysit. Cape Dorset’s carvers and printmakers are famous all over the world.
We do lots of things for fun in Cape Dorset. We have dances and we play hockey, tag, Inuit games and hackey sack. We also go camping, hunting, ice fishing, and snowhouse building.
Our favourite foods are "country food" - seal, caribou, char, muktuk, clams, blueberries, seaweed, and bannock. When we eat meat almost every part of the animal is eaten. It is dried, boiled, baked, cooked, or eaten raw or frozen. The elders sometimes eat "igunaq", which is aged walrus meat. We also eat lots of junkfood like chips and pop and "bars".
People think that Baffin Island is covered with rocks and snow, and that we have no plant life here, but they are wrong. We have many kinds of moss and lichen, and lots of flowers and grasses, like buttercups, wild roses, and Arctic cotton. In the summer we see different insects like bees, butterflies, moths, and different kinds of flies. Inuit people don’t like bugs.
We still have many birds and animals here which we hunt for food. There are caribou, rabbits, beluga, and narwhal. There are ptarmigan, ducks, geese, and pitseolaks. There are wolves and foxes, and three kinds of seal. We sometimes find walrus near the floe edge and sometimes polar bear come close to town.
In ten years from now Cape Dorset will be bigger. There will be more people, more houses, more cars, and more jobs. A bigger school. No drugs or alcohol. We will still do the things we like to do.
Transcribed from original tape and notes by Murray Bourne, Program Support Teacher, Peter Pitseolak School.