Happy Nunavut Day!

I have to admit in advance that none of the pictures you're going to see from here on in are taken by me. The reason being that my camera is lost. This is sad because there were some good photos on there and I would have liked to have taken more. It's also sad because it means that I'll be forking over a couple hundred dollars for a new one. Shockingly, one of the stores in town sells disposable film cameras so I'm still able to take some pictures. Once I catch a flight back to 1998, I'll be able to develop them and show them to people. It's going to be awesome! In the meantime, Google Images will become a good friend of the blog. I've already learned that there is very little that I have seen or done in my life that Google doesn't already have covered. I'm not sure whether to be happy about that or sad that my life is nowhere near as unique as I once thought.

All that aside, July 9 was Nunavut Day! It was very well advertised via the following poster that I took a picture of*

Nunavut Day is the anniversary of the passing of the "Nunavut Act" in 1993 which, as you no doubt can not figure out on your own, established Nunavut as a territory independent from the Northwest Territories. Nunavut wasn't actually legally distinct until April 1 1999 but the passing of the act was deemed to be more significant so July 9 became the day to celebrate. As an aside to any non-Canadian readers, Nunavut is unique in that it is a territory that is semi-autonomous and self-governed by an aboriginal group (the Inuit). The word "Nunavut" means "Our Land" in Inuktitut.

But enough history, you probably want to know about the free hamburger I ate at the festival. It was delicious! The astute amongst you will note that the man in the photo is making pancakes and not, in fact, hamburgers. Apparently that's what they served on Nunavut Day in 2004, when the picture was taken. That's the type of inconsistency you will have to live with. Unless, of course, you band together and buy me a camera. Perhaps with a nice telescopic lens. You can get it shipped up to Iqaluit... it'll cost you more but think about all the different low resolution photos you'll see on a blog if you do it... just think about it.

I also can't show you a picture of the "seal pull" - a weirdly entertaining competition where women (only women) tied a rope to a few tires (the "seal"), sat down 30 meters away, and pulled the tires towards themselves. The fastest puller won... something. During the pull, there was one bystander getting really into it yelling "Inuit women are strong!!". It was true, they were strong. If pulling a seal across ice is anything like pulling four tires across bare pavement, then I gather it's a pretty difficult job.

Unfortunately, I can't say too much else about the Nunavut Day festivities as I was stuck in the hospital for most of it. I know that there was also a bouncy castle and a really cute little girl carrying a doll in her amautik (woman's parka where the hood is designed to carry a child). Google Images was actually able to recreate that last one. Just imagine a parking lot with a bouncy castle instead of a snowy tundra and it's pretty accurate. I don't know why, but I really like the amautik (see last post). I just learned what it's called so I'm proudly using the word. Amautik.

*There is a special prize in store for anybody who knows (or guesses) what the Inuktitut writing says.