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Head for the hills

Land-based education program still going after more than a decade

KIRSTEN MURPHY
Nunatsiaq News

Vice-principal Donald Mearns was the voice behind the raffle. (PHOTOS BY KIRSTEN MURPHY)

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A little toilet paper goes a long way when you're Donald Mearns.

The vice-principal of Attagoyuk School in Pangnirtung distributed the delicate tissue at a recent Loonie Toonie raffle in support of the school's annual spring camp.

Qamutik runners, airline tickets and laundry soap were among the raffled items generating $3,300.

"Sometimes it's the first day of spring camp and the money promised to you hasn't arrive. So you pull off a Loonie sale and you get $3,300," he says with his legendary laugh.

This year, warm weather may cut the camp short. "We're playing it by ear. Taking it day by day."

Each year hundreds of parka-clad infants, students and elders scatter throughout the modern-day outpost camp. Some go ice fishing at a nearby lake. Others play cards and sew duffels at the hill-side camp. Throughout the day students participate in candy tosses, science projects, bannock-making and baseball games.

"A lot of kids get their first caribou or their first seal and then share it with their grandparents and family members. It's really neat," Mearns says.

Though the entire community is invited to attend, students are the focus.

"Education is about valuing culture, students, language, families and bringing it all together to create a Nunavut education system – not an Alberta or Nova Scotia or Newfoundland system," he says.

To fund the project, Mearns taps in to the pockets at Kakivak Association and companies like Shell Canada.

"If there is anything else like this [in Nunavut], I haven't heard of it," he says. "It's an amazing program but at times a lot of work and a lot of anxiety."

That anxiety is linked to money. This year's camp cost more than $40,000 for everything from fuel and food to salaries.

Julia Tautaujuk walks away with a roll of canvas from a Loonie Toonie fundraiser.

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Kakivak donates $25,000 because of the camp's science component. Students conduct experiments such as testing char for pollutants. They catch, gut, dissect and package the fish to be sent to Norway to be part of a circumpolar study.

"The bottom line is science is about observation, and Inuit are prime observers," he says.

Money worries aside, the camp's benefits are long-lasting.

"It's a lot of fun. You do things like seal hunting and talking to elders. We're learning to keep our traditions alive, " says Patricia Peyton, 16.

Future plans include running the camp year-round with an emphasis on interactive learning.

For example, students might harvest a seal, dissect the mammal and post exercises on their Web pages.

"That would be my dream. For me, that's real education. That's concrete education that relates directly to the culture," he says.

Regardless of what the future brings, Mearns and the other camp organizers are thinking of the present.

"The community has seen a lot of hard times in the last five, six years with suicides and tragic deaths," he says. "It's things like this that helps people heal."

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