Natuashish – Old and New

Sunshine over the gathering in Natuashish.

As mentioned in my previous blog post I spent this week on the Labrador Coast bring the #IDThemDays project to Nain and Natuashish. The main part of my job this week was to meet with local people and have them identify as many unidentified photographs in their communities as possible. This went better than I anticipated with approximately 150 photographs identified in Nain and 130 photographs identified in Natuashish.

View of the church tent and several family tents.

The main reason I travelled to the coast this week in particular was to head to the gathering in Natuashish as suggested by Chief Gregory Rich. When I called Chief Gregory Rich early in February he suggested I come and stay at the gathering which takes place the week before Easter as I would have the best opportunity to meet with as many elders as possible. I was put in contact with Justine and Cajetan Rich by Judge John Joy, a big Them Days supporter, and they agreed to host me in their tent while I was in Natuashish. I borrowed a sleeping bag and stocked up on some food before flying out.

The Rich's tent.

I arrived in Natuashish on Sunday afternoon and hitched a ride from the airport with the RCMP. We talked briefly with Cajetan who said the tents weren’t ready yet but that they would pick me up Monday lunchtime to head out to the gathering. Sunday night I stayed in the Natuashish hotel and I’m very glad I did as the staff and guests were extremely hospitable. Monday morning I was feeling pretty excited and a little nervous about the trip when one of the other guests starting talking about a trip he has taken out on the land in -70° weather and asking about all my supplies. Needless to say I got a little panicked but the staff and guests rushed to my aid supplying me with extra food, facecloths and a blanket as well as snow pants (which I managed to forget in the rush of packing a computer, projector, camera and everything else I needed in one suitcase).

Warren and Fantasia - grandchildren of Justine and Cajetan Rich.

On Monday afternoon Justine’s family travelled by snowmobile out to the gathering site about an hour outside of the town. Once the bags and supplies were unloaded I was taken around by two of Justine’s grandchildren to meet several families who were setting up at the gathering. I explained the project and asked to come back the next day with photographs. On Tuesday I completed most of the identification work in the midst of a blizzard. Thankfully the Labrador tents are toasty warm inside so it was only going between the tents when the wind and snow were blowing that it felt like a blizzard.  On Wednesday there was even more snow and wind so I spent most of the day in the tent with the Rich family until I travelled back to Natuashish on the back of a snowmobile that evening.

Identifying photographs.

The one thing that really struck me during my time in Natuashish was the combination of new and old elements. Innu people traditionally hunt caribou, trap partridge and hunt and gather other food sources from the land. The yearly tradition of the gathering is a way to pass on that tradition and way of life to a new generation. This tradition is not static instead the tradition of the gathering is dynamic and combines new ideas and technology with older ones.

Preparing traditional food.

For example the tents we slept in were canvas tents instead of the caribou hide tents from years gone by. Some of these canvas tents were hand sewn while others were store bought. The process of setting up the tents is really ingenious and draws on the practice of using the branches and trunks of trees to lash down the tent and keep its structure. The floor inside the tent was made of spruce twigs which insulates the tent and keeps the supplies dry from the snow underneath. The stoves were propped up on four logs and all the firewood was chopped on site. The foods that were eaten ranged from the more traditional foods such as partridge, caribou and Innu bread to modern camping fare such as Vienna sausages, hot dogs and chips. Everywhere you looked there were signs of new and old traditions mingling. Women dressed in traditional dress with bandanas covering their hair wore Ugg boots while children who played games on IPods were gifted traditional moccasins. I believe the gathering is an extremely important tradition and one which I hope and believe will continue for years to come.

Preparing Innu bread.

It was a truly amazing experience which I am thankful to have had.

Lovely bead work earrings from Justine Rich.

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I’ve included this short video about Elizabeth Penashue from Sheshatshui in order to shed a little bit of light on the importance of getting back to the land. Although she is from a different community many of the sentiments described were also expressed during my time at the gathering.

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A huge thank you goes out to Justine Rich and family who were extremely generous and housed, and fed me while sharing their stories and traditions with me, to the staff and guests of the Natuashish hotel for hospitality, to the woman who lent me a mattress to sleep on, and to Robin McGrath and John Joy for their help before I set out.

Coastal Labrador

I just wanted to write a quick update and say that this week I am traveling to the coast of Labrador. I arrived this morning in Nain and I head to Natuashish on Sunday. I experienced a couple of firsts today.

View from the plane during take off.

I had my first experience on the coastal twin otter planes. I was warned ahead of time by several people that they were small planes and they did not exaggerate. At 5’4” I couldn’t stand up and I think my outstretched arms could almost reach both sides of the plane. I was even asked if I wanted to rebook my flight when I arrived at the airport this morning. The receptionist explained that they expected a fair bit of turbulence and asked if I wanted to fly tomorrow morning instead. I decided to go anyway and I was surprised at the ease of the flight. Don’t get me wrong it was small and there were bouts of turbulence but the roaring engine was reassuring and I fell asleep during the flights between the coastal communities until we landed in Nain.

Nain, Labrador.

Once I received my baggage I experienced another first – my first snow mobile ride. I picked up my massive bag filled with a laptop, projector, sleeping bag and snowshoes I hitched a ride to my host’s home where I had a cup of tea and a sandwich. In the afternoon I went to the Nunatsiavut government’s office where I met with six community elders and we reviewed old photographs of Nain. They were able to identify quite a number of pictures and were interested enough to want to stop in tomorrow morning to review more photographs.

Moravian Church, Nain.

It is really interesting to hear some of the stories that come out of a single photograph. We even came across a photo of Lisa, the community health worker’s parents which she had never seen before and who she didn’t have any photos of before. I love hearing people’s stories about photographs. I’ll share some stories in another blog post from a meeting I had last week in Goose Bay with a woman who was originally from Hebron. We had an hour long chat over one photograph!

Siutit (ears!)

After the photo identification event I borrowed my host Fran’s dog and went for a walk around Nain. The mountains that surround the community are beautiful and I’m looking forward to the next couple of days here before I head out on the land with the Innu for their annual Easter Gathering. A happy St. Patrick’s day to anyone celebrating and I hope that Sheila’s brush is over swiftly!

Nain, NL.

Big Land, Big Fun

View of the Mealy Mountains from North West River.

I took a couple of days off this week as my boyfriend Jordan came down for a visit. It was lovely to have someone to go exploring with and to enjoy the beautiful winter here in Labrador and I was thoroughly sad to see him go. (Not to mention I missed him - I s'pose.)

Jordan and I decked out in some World War One helmets in Northern Lights.

Our first day exploring we got our rental car and explored some of the sites to visit in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. We stopped into my favourite stores - previously mentioned on this blog. In Slippers and Things we drooled over the beautiful crafts and handmade slippers. We explored the small military museum in Northern Lights a store (also known as bullets to bras for its wide selection of items to purchase). We also made a quick stop into Them Days where I showed Jordan the office, archives, and the magazine.

Cable car in North West River.

After a quick lunch we took a drive to North West River where we went for a walk, checked out the local convenience store Groceries and Things and met some interesting people. It was a beautiful albeit chilly day. Unfortunately we were unable to check out the museum as it was snowed in from a storm earlier in the week. We did see the cable car I was told about by my pop who worked as a roofer on some buildings in North West River. He vividly remembered taking the cable car across the river and told us to have a look out for it. We returned to town and finished off our first day in Goose Bay with a deadly feed of wiener schnitzel at Bentley's restaurant.

Medium cheddar cheese, black truffle cheese, devil's rock creamy blue cheese, jalapeno muenster cheese, and ginger cheese! CHEESE OVERLOAD

We decided to pack in as many winter activities as possible because Jordan has been unable to do much of anything in St. John's' slushy winter and because we both love the season. The following day after a breakfast of cheese and crackers we headed out to Birch Brook Nordic Ski Club. The building is beautiful and the trails are excellently maintained. They were a bit more of a challenge than the cross country trails in Pippy Park or on Three Pond Barrens! It was an excellent ski and was topped off by a hot chocolate and chat with two of the people responsible for starting and maintaining the club. We headed back to Goose Bay for a potluck at my boss Aimee and her boyfriend John's house. The potluck was in celebration of the end of February and the end of the health challenge several co-workers and spouses completed. We didn't win the challenge but we had a great and healthy meal with friends and had a lot of fun trying to meditate for extra health challenge points.

Skiing selfie at Birch Brook.

Jordan borrowed John's snowshoes and I brought my pair with me so we started Monday off with a snowshoe on Birch Island. The island was inhibited until resettlement in the 1960s and is a beautiful spot for a walk. It is so calm and peaceful you really don't feel like you are minutes from Goose Bay.

The view on our snowshoe adventure.

Snowshoeing at Birch Island.

Monday afternoon we went dog sledding with Northern Lights. It is nowhere near as fast paced as it looks on TV but it is an excellent way to see the countryside and the dogs keep a steady pace. Jordan and I took turns standing on the back of the slide or sitting in the front. After our ride Scott showed us around the kennel, explained some of the reasons he keeps dogs and the importance of dog sledding in Labrador. He mentioned that there are roughly 60 Labrador Huskies left and he feels it is really important to keep the tradition of dog sledding alive and well in the Big Land.

Northern Lights dog sledding.

Dog sledding fun!

The whole team rearing to go.

After a couple of eventful days we took some downtime to relax, read books, eat good food, and watch bad TV. Jordan flew back to St. John's Wednesday evening so it was a bit of a strange work week as I only worked Thursday and Friday. It is hard to believe that is now the start of the tenth week and I am already over halfway done my work term. I'm excited to head back home but I will definitely miss my time here in Labrador.