Northern Memories

When Arnakallak would describe the “horrendous” first two years he spent in the Far North, he’d use the word ­uakallaluraaluulauqtuq: “It was too much!” Decades ago, his family was one of several that Ottawa relocated from Pond Inlet, on Baffin Island, to the High Arctic. The unfamiliar conditions — the cold, the lack of shelter, the limited food sources, and the long, dark winters — took their toll. Another High Arctic exile, Anna, also recalled those early long winters and described how the unending night “soaked me to my innermost being in fear.” Yet another, a grandmother, would pack up her bags every morning and wonder if it was time to go home. She did not live very long, a neighbour recalled. She died asking the same question: “Are we leaving today?” Others watched helplessly as their newborns, siblings, parents, and grandparents succumbed to “extreme cold and lack of food.”