Death and Life in the Canadian Arctic: Baffin Island, Canada

St. Luke's church in Pangnirtung, Baffin Island is one of fifty congregations in Canadian diocese of Arctic, a vast territory some 2,000 by 1,500 miles that stretches from Yukon in west to Davis Strait facing Greenland in East. Since 1999 diocese has comprised three Canadian jurisdictions, new Inuit homeland of Nunavut in northeast, Inuit portion of arctic Quebec called Nunavik, and mostly aboriginal Indian Northwest Territory. About half of congregations in diocese are in Nunavut, in communities ranging in population from 4,200 in Iqaluit, capital, to 148 in Aujuittuq on Ellesmere Island in north (the name means the place that never thaws out). Nunavut is roughly size of California in area, with a mostly Inuit population of 25,000. There are a few trees in very southernmost part of Nunavut, but otherwise land is barren rock and snow in long winter-September to June-and barren rock with grass and arctic flowers in brief summertime. The village of Pangnirtung (locally known as Pang) is on shore of a forty-mile-long fjord running north from Cumberland Sound across from Greenland. The village stands on a narrow shelf of rock next to fjord, with mountains behind it rising abruptly to 3000 feet. The houses are mostly prefab wooden structures, imported on supply boat that comes each year in August. The local people buy packages at reasonable rates and men from village put them together. A gravel airstrip bisects village, with three or four commercial flights a day when it's not snowing or fogged in or too windy to land. Some 1300 people live in Pang, 90% of whom are Inuit. About half of population are under 15. There is an elementary school, a high school, and a branch of Arctic College that is headquartered in Iqaluit some 180 air-miles to south. A number of native workshops in Pang produce beautiful prints and soapstone carvings and embroidered clothing, sold in (i.e., Montreal and Toronto) by Inuit cooperatives. In wintertime there is ice-fishing in Cumberland Sound, 20 miles south by skidoo (sled), and some years catch runs over 100 tons. The frozen fish go out by commercial planes to Japan and other worldwide markets. But most of families also fish and hunt for their own consumption as well. Caribou, whale, and arctic char are staples in local diet, though food with astronomically high sugar content is available at northern store. There is also a tiny Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise (the chicken tastes suspicious). Although traditional ways of life persist, and older people go out on land to hunt and fish whenever they can, culture has hammered Inuit community. Every house has a television, and a huge satellite dish brings in many channels (including programming from Iqaluit in Inuktitut, native language, to be sure). Since mid-1980s drugs have ravaged village-too easy to conceal from Mounties who used to meet every arriving plane. And anyway, enterprising dealers can make it to Iqaluit by skidoo in two days during winter and bring back a rainbow selection of pharmacopeia. There are periodic episodes of teen suicide in Pang. Young people are expected to learn old ways-but why go out at 40 below when you can smoke and do drugs and watch TV at home? And although Inuktitut is language of instruction through elementary grades, whole system-tardy bells, homework and headlearning rather than watching Dad fish-is very daunting. Many children decide very early that they cannot manage, they'll never finish school, and they will never have a job. There have been Christians in and around Pang for almost a hundred years. Elders in village remember a woman named Assivak who was a strong evangelist in early 190Os. They tell how Assivak lived in hunting camps as a little girl with her family, on southern shore of Cumberland Sound, across from Pangnirtung fjord. …

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