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.