During his trip to the Inuit Heritage Trust in Iqaluit after taking on the Heritage and Culture portfolio, Premier P.J. Akeeagok made a “serendipitous visit” on Nov. 22 to the workshop next door, which happened to be housing qajait under construction by the Qajakkut Society.
“They were speaking about the heritage centre,” says Robert Comeau, Qajakkut Society vice-president and instructor, “so after the meetings, we went down into the shop that’s attached to the IHT [Inuit Heritage Trust] building and we got to show P.J.... the products of some of the programs that we have at Qajakkut. We’re lucky that we have IHT’s support — we’ve had it since the beginning since our existence as a group.”
The Qajakkut Society launched in 2016 with an initial model build after a visit to Greenland showcased “the vibrant qajaq culture that was maintained in Greenland. They have a very strong qajaq culture, they never lost it like we did, and that was very exciting to us,” says Comeau.
From 1016-2021, the first qajait (the Inuit word for three or more of the vessels), were built in West Greenlandic style “because those were the resources that were available to us at the beginning,” explains Comeau, “until we were able to start working with some Elders from our region. Since 2020-2021, we’ve evolved to start building the South Baffin-style qajaq. Alongside [developing] our own regional style, we’ve been developing regional programs.”
With these programs, the Qajakkut Society works with partners across Nunavut at all levels of government as well as regional Inuit associations and other philanthropic foundations to access funding to deliver programs on building, paddling and hunting with the qajaq.
Working directly with communities, such as this past year in Coral Harbour and Cambridge Bay, “we were lucky enough to provide cultural programming... so that was a lot of fun,” says Comeau. He also recalls the recent repatriation of a qajaq in Rankin Inlet that the society was then able to recreate.
“So we were able to bring that qajaq style back to that community. It was a really rewarding build because we got to work with community members, but we also got to paddle with community members. Once we had finished the replication, we hosted a community event where anyone from the community was able to come paddle a qajaq. We had almost 200 people... come down to the beach.”
The Qajakkut Society has more project builds planned for various communities, as well as building the first qajaq made of bearded seal skin.
“Up until now, we’ve been using modern materials like ballistic nylon and polyurethane," says Comeau. "This is a technique that we’ve borrowed from other qajaq builders... it is very efficient... it creates a qajaq that does not need to be attended to for five years. However, recently, some of the Elders have expressed their desire to do a traditional skin on frame.”
Using funds from the Annauma Foundation Community Consensus Granting Program, the Qajakkut Society will be building with traditional materials in 2025, “so we’re really excited about that,” Comeau says.
One of the biggest steps forward for the organization came from the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, Ont., in 2021, which was redeveloping itself at the time.
“They know who we are, what we’re up to,” recalls Comeau, “so they approached us and asked if we could build a qajaq for them.”
The museum offered to give them extra funding to build two qajaak in the South Baffin style “with the understanding that it would be a learning project.” For the grand opening, the Inuit builders were flown south, along with the advising Elders, and a qajaq for display in the museum was taken off the wall and paddled before being returned to display.
“I thought it was a good example of how a museum can have a cool partnership with Indigenous peoples,” remarks Comeau.
The society works on a contract basis with communities to find the funding to proceed with these project builds, or is approached by the community with funds in hand. From now until March in Iqaluit, Comeau’s home community, there will be drop-in sessions funded by the Qikiqtani Inuit Association on Mondays from 6 p.m.-8 p.m. and Saturdays, beginning at 3 p.m.
“That stems from having spent the year travelling doing projects. We realized we weren’t doing a lot for Iqallumiut, so that’s why we wanted to offer these sessions as opposed to our programs which tend to be longer. These drop in sessions will allow people to come in and see if they’re interested.”
