HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1989-08-16, Page 3•
life among the
"It's weird to see the darkness and the
•stars,"
Thissounds like a welyd statement, but if
You'd been spending your summers in the
Arctic for the •past 15 years, you too would
think of the summer as a time of eternal
.daylight.
Neil Phillips, son of Stu and Mara Phillips
of Seaforth and a former Seaforth resident.
lives 2;000 miles almost directly north of
Seaforth in Hall Beach, Northwest Ter-
ritories. At this time of year the sun doesn't
go down in Hall Beach, but travels a cir-
cular path across the sky.
Mr, 'Phillips and his wife Mary are m
Seaforth for a vacation in what seems like
almost another world compared to where
they have made their home 200 miles north
of the Arctic Circle.
Are they finding their summer in the
south hot?
"Extremely! Our bodies aren't climatized
at all," says Mr. Phillips. He has lived the
last four years in Hall Beach, but has been
in the Northwest Territories for 15 years
since the age of 21 - "all my adult life."
And Mary, who is an Inuit woman,
definitely prefers a colder climate as well.
Mary's full name, including her Inuit
nemesis Mary Agnamaktik Sevoga Phillips.
Agnamaktik means "big lady" and Sevoga
is her maiden name, improperly spelled by
a english speaking official who couldn't
spell her real name. Her actual maiden
name bears some resemblance to Sevoga
and is an Inuit word meaning "part of a
' thigh."
A non -Inuit may feel that being named for
a body part seems unusual, but Mrs
Phillips says some of our names are unusual
too. "We're named after a screwdriver "
Agnarnaktik is not used by Mary vet.
because it is her grandmother's name. More
particularly, Agnamaktik is her grand-
mother, a woman over 100 years of age, and
her name cannot be used until she has pass-
ed away. When she does Mary will inherit
the title of "Big Lady," and to the Inuit she
will be Agnamaktik.
"Basically what happens is she becomes
that person who dies," Mr. Phillips explain:
the Eskimo custom. "They make sure a per-
son lives forever and never dies."
But this difference m naming is just one of
many things which makes the Inuit a
,separate people and the NWT a separate
world.
Mr. Phillips finds most southerners are ig-
norant concernmg the north. Just recently
he was renting a video in Seaforth and had
to produce a driver's license. He presented
the clerk 'with a NWT driver's licence and
was told . "I'll have to see a license that's
valid in Canada:"
Most Canadians, he finds, think that the
NWT is all ice. snow and polar bears. But he
. says Yellowknife, where he lived for mane
years, has been rated one of the nicest cities,
in Canada to hve in, second only to
Vancouver.
Mr. Phillips sees the North as a land of op-
portunity. The total land mass of the ter-
ritories •encompasses one-third of Canada.
yet there are only 55,000 people living there.
"It's almost like a frontier. There are so
man _opportunities. "
Many oT'tFiese opportunities exist because
the Canadian government likes to en-
courage settlement and development of the
North
Using his situation for an example, Mr
Phillips explains he got a $28,000 loan to
start his construction business in Hall
Beach. He paid the loan back m sir months.
and has since occupied his summers with
gnu 1
referre
THE HURON EXPOSITOR AUGUST 16 1989 3A
1.
by former Senforthg,
.
yip
AN INUIT drags a seal he has caught up on the ice for dressing The people of Has
Beach are still very much hunters and fishermen Submitted photo
ARCTIC FOL' - While Seatorthites have struggled under a short heat wave this sum•
mer two visitors to town, Neil and Mary Phillips, really feel the sun. Mr. and Mrs Philips
are from Hall Beach, NWT. about 2,000 miles directly north of Seaforth, and are in
Seaforth visiting Mr. Philips' parents Stu and Mara of Egmondville. Corbett photo
jobs building houses, schools, government
buildings, etc.
Mary is a social worker. There are only
500 people in Hall Beach, a DEW line site,
and she handles all five departments - youth
worker, parole officer, social assistance of-
ficer, family counsel 'r . and childcare
worker.
Between them me couple makes a very
comfortable living. asd like any northern
famiIy is eligible ice special government
benefits
There is a Home Ownership Assistance
Plan. with which the government literally
.,gives away houses in the NWT by providing
all building materials and $4,000 toward
- building expenses.
And there are excellent education
opportunities,.
"If a ldd is been in the NWT or lives there
for three years he can get a totally free
university education anywhere in Canada.
And that includes things like tuition, living
allowance and books," says Mr. Phillips.
The government will even pay to fly the
students back to their home town twice a
year, and the government invariably offers
students a job in the summer.
"The government wants people educated
and the only way is to support them," he
explains.
Life .in Hall Beach is simple. Or at least
-uncomplicated.
Mr. Phillips says the spanish word
'manna' sums up the attitude of the Inuit
people -if you don't have time to do it today.
it'll get done tomorrow.
Hall Beach is accessible by sea or air, and
is surrounded by about 100 square miles of
gravel - when the snow is melted. Nothing
comes into the village except by ship or by
plane. There are about two and a half miles
of road in the village for people like Mr
Phillips who own trucks. The "Bikini
Capital of the North" has two stores'which
supply everything the town needs.
The population of Hall Beach is almost en-
tirely eskimo. Mr. Phillips is one of about 10
Kabloonas in the town. Most others are tran-
sients like nurses, teachers, priests or
RCMP officers, who live in the town for
couple year: and are then restationed
elsewhere
"Kabloona" is of course the Inuit word for
a white englishntan. Mary translates that
this means "bushy eyebrows and beer bel-
ly." "Na" being the Inuit word for stomach.
"That's how they looked when they first
came up," says Mary, offering little
apology.
But the French fared little better than the
Kabloonas, and a frenchman is referred to
as a "weewee" (apparently taken from
"out, oui" I .
Mr. Phillips finds the Inuit a closely knit,
and somewhat clannish people. In the
village doors are always left open
"You don't knock on doors. If you hear a
knock you know it's either a white guy or so-
meone from down south."
Because the sun doesn't set in the sum-
mer, and rises little during the darkness of
day, the Inuit have little regard for time or a
structured lifestyle. Children do as they
-please,-andeome home-wheatitemare•tired
or hungry. And not necessarily their own
home. Mr. Phillips says if you didn't lock
your door (he does, and they expect it of a
kabloona) it wouldn't be unusual to wake up
at three or four o'clock in the morning with
kids in your house watching television.
There is also a huge generation gap
among the Inuit. Many Inuit, even of Mary's
generation, were born in igloos and raised
HALL BEACH, seen from the air, This is about half of the town of about 500 people. and
in this picture can be seen the nursing stations. Hudson Bay Co. building, school, and
Neil and Mary Philips home. Submitted photo.
hunters and fishermen. But Inuit children
today have the trappings of modern society
to make them sophisticated, and adults are
learning to cope with the modern world.
"You're talking about a culture that went
from totally hunting and fishing to modern
civilization. That took white man 5,000
years. but it's happened to the Inuit in 100
years."
Today the Inuit ride snowmobiles, hunt
with rifles, have soda pop shipped to their
villages by the ton, and kill time watching
television. Many watch their soaps
religiously and Mr. Phillips says "they
totally believe in soap operas. A lot of people
believe that someone follows these real peo-
ple all day with a camera. A T.V. tells what
happens "
But the eskimo way of life still strongly
persists, and when a beluga is spotted the
villagers Ina man drop what they are doing
and 10 to 15 boats head out on the waves with
harpoons, rifles and floats to bring in their
catch.
It is, of course, terribly cold by our stan-
dards in Hull beach, and the weather is un-
predictable. July 1 this year was celebrated
as the hottest July 1 on record at.20 degrees,
but on the morning of July 2 there was a
morning snowstorm.
In January and February the average
temperature is 40 below. When the wind
blows work shuts down as temperatures are
effectively 60 to 70 degrees below with the
windchill.
Purchased food is flown in and is seldom
very fresh. Two dollars worth of water
melon would sell for about $40 in the north.
But game is plentiful for hunters or
fishermen.
"The limit is five caribou for a white guy,
and you could go out and shoot five caribou
all at one time if you wanted to." says Mr.
Phillips. Char, a species of arctic sahnon, is
plentiful for fishermen, When Stu Phillips
went to Hall Beach to visit his son he spent a
lot of time fishing, and in one day caught 15
char which he gave to Inuit boys.
The extreme weather and remoteness in
the north can create a harsh atmosphere,
and many would wonder why anyone would
choose to live there.
"It's the solitude. Not running all the
time," says Stu Phillips.
His son agrees.
To him the NWT is home, and he doesn't
question living there. From his first impres-
sion he took to the North.
"You either love it or you hate it. There's
no in between. I loved it.
Students see Rome, Vatican Gardens and $w
They were delayed at airports, attacked
by eight-year-old muggers, almost feu in a
canal, and fed spaghetti for lunch everyday
for two weeks, but neither of two local young
women -Leanne Dolmage and Tracy
Bennett- will forget their summer in Italy.
Leanne, 16 -year-old daughter of Neil and
Loretta Dolmage of RR 4 Walton, and
Tracy, daughter of Gary and Dianne Ben-
nett of Seaforth, also 16, were in Italy this
summer as part of a Lions exchange pro-
gram, The exchange lasted six weeks, and
the girls stayed their first two weeks with
the family of a Lions member from Italy,
their third and fourth weeks in a camp in
Venice with 55 students from countries
around the world, and their last two weeks
billeted with a second family. '
The trip got off to a rocky start for Leanne
and Tracy who were together for the flight
to Italy and the train ride from Milan to
Venice. Their plane was delayed twice, and
they ended up spending two days on it before
arriving, at their destination.
•Bttt they were lucky enough to be billeted
close, together in a suburb of Venice so they
could visit one another and have a friend
fr,om home in the foreign city.
"Like Venice, the buildings are really old
and really beautiful," says Leanne. She ex-
plains Venice is very much a tourist city,
and there are no cars allowed, and no train
for,:public transit. The girls got around "by
water or by walking," and spent much of
their first two weeks in Italy window shopp-
ing,and seeing the sights in Venice.
For their third and fourth weeks Tracy
and Leanne were at the Lions Camp with 55
young travellers from across the globe.
They met and befriended .people from
Sweden, Israel, Denmark, South Africa
-"people from all over the place."
BACK FROM ITALY - Leanne Dolmage and Tracy Bennett recently returned from a six
week exchange in Italy, which was sponsored by Lions International. The local girls
spent four weeks billeted with Italian families, and two .weeks at a Lions camp where
they stayed with 55 student travellers from around the world. They are seen here with
momentoes from their travels. Corbett photo.
"You really got to know about their coun-
tries and their way of life. It's a lot different
than Canada in some places," says Leanne,
recalling specifically hearing about the
situation in South Africa from the mouth of a
South African native, as opposed towhat we
typically hear on the evening news.
But the girls were somewhat disappointed
with the conditions at the Lions camp. Their
dormitory was in an old school house
building. The showers were solar,powered
and could only ,be used when it was sunny
outside, the,beds were too short and sagged
in the middle, .and some boys in a
downstairs room had a latenight visitor -a
scorpion,
"We had spaghetti everday for lunch at
camp, and if anything was left over from
lunch we had it for,stipper," recalls Tracy.
weeks of spaghetti
The Italian breakfast consisted of not
chocolate in a bowl, eaten with a spoon,
which the western visitors found unusual.
"But the people we met there and the
places we went made up for it," says
Leanne.
They were taken to see many of the sites
in Italy while at the camp. In Rome they
visited the Colliseum, the Forum, the
Roman Parliament, the Holy Steps, the
tombs of popes in the Vatican Gardens, and
Rome's own McDonalds. The group also
visited Pisa, Florence and other Italian
cities.
While in Rome Leanne and Tracy, accom-
panied by a third girl from Canada, were
almost mugged by a group of children.
About eight children, ranging between
seven and 12 years of age, approached
them. Tracy knew what they were up to and
said "hold onto your purses." The kids
swarmed over the little group of tourists,
clutching at purses, cameras or whatever
they could steal of value.
They didn't manage to get anything from
the Canadian girls who were prewarned, but
did put a scare into them. Other tourists
weren't so lucky.
The girls noticed that to be a Lions
member in Italy is a social thing and many
of the members are quite wealthy, so they
were Wetted in some posh surroundings.
While staying with one family Leanne swam
in the Mediterranean Sea each day, and was
taken climbing in scenic mountains border-
ing Switzerland.
Leanne,and Tracy found Italy and Italians
are in many ways different than Canadians.
The ,people, from their impression, were
quite rude publicly, .but hospitable in
,private.
Their vehicles are almost without excep-
tion standards, and small enough to fit
through narrow streets. and the Italians
drive them aggressively. Leanne
remembers her car rides as times for
prayers and nervously gripping armrests.
Tracy says the Italians drive like there's no
one else on the road. "If they want to go
somewhere they just beep their horn and
go'
Neither girl got to drive in Italy, because
the driving age is 18.
The meals they found virtually always
consisted of three plates. One, of course, of
pasta "A lot of different kinds, and a lot of it
was really good" remarks Tracy, another
plate of meat, and one of vegetable salad
dressed with oil and vinegar.
But neither traveller was impressed by
Italian pizza, which they said was often top-
ped just by sauce - no pepperoni,
mushrooms, olives.,. "1 still like Pizza Train
pizza better," noted Leanne.
The girls ,also travelled m gondolas - the
long narrocanal boats everyune identifies
with Italy. "It was fun. We almost tipped,
but it was fun." When the man poling at one
end of the boat got tired and decided to walk
up and switch positions with the person pol-
ing at the other end of the gondola, he set the
boat rocking and the passengers carne close
to ending up in the canal.
For both Leanne and Tracy the trip was
their first venture overseas.
"It was a good experience, travelling un
our own," says Tracy. "It's something we
might never get to do again."
Leanne and Tracy will be attending a
local Lions club meeting soon, to tell about
the exchange in Italy that the Lions
sponsored.
Seaforth dentists
-honored with
:Fellowship Award
Seaforth's two dentist brothers have
been honored with a prestigous
Fellowship Award by the Academy of
General Dentistry.
Doctors Thomas Glen Drake, DDS,
and David ,Hugh Drake, DDS, received
the •awards during a ,special ceremony
at the -Academy •of General 'Dentistry's
Annual tMeeting, July 17, in New York.
The Academy is the ;second ,largest
dental organization In North America.
Its 304000 members ,are ,dedicated to
continuing dental education in ,general
;practice. To earn ,the .award, the
brothers completed ;paore t500 hours
o£ :continuing -educe `on,.wtthin 110 ,!ears
„andrpassed a: xfeU.oweiiP,agatataation.
Bothrbr-others„ twita$hare a,rFeaatice in
iStratford ,And .Seaforth, ;graduated from
the University of Toronto School of Den-
tistry in 1981.
The Drakes are membersof the Cana-
dian Dental Association and .the 4teat-
ford .and District Dental Society. Dr.
Thomas Drake is a .member .of the On-
tario Dental :Society, ,the ,Wipgham and
District Dental ,Society ,and ,tine ,Ontario
Study ,Club of Qsseointegration. ;fie is
also ,active with the -Stratford Power
Squadron.
Dr. David ;D,rake serves as ;governor
of the Ontario ,Dental ,Society ,and .is a
member rof,the.;(tlterriaticnal.,i sogiation
,for Orthodontics.
,Roth rb L, that's „are ,,active 0w,ith 'fCflox
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