For Noel Cockney, being a part of the Ulukhaqtuuq Youth Wellness Gathering meant a lot of things, but as an Inuvialuit one thing stood out for him in particular.
“I grew up in Tuktoyaktuk and Inuvik, but this was my first time to Ulukhaktok and I’m 32 years old,” he said. “For us as Inuvialuit people, until the communities were established, we never really stayed in one spot. We travelled all the way from Paulatuk to Ulukhaktok to Sachs Harbour to here in Inuvik, Tuktoyaktuk and Aklavik and further west to Herschel Island. The coast and the Delta were our homes.
“For us to be able to start to reconnect people across the communities and really understand the different landscapes that the Inuvialuit people own and see those places. A lot of people were connecting with family they didn’t even know they had.”
Cockney was the Dechinta Bush University representative on the July 25 to 30 trip to Ulukhaktok for the participants, mostly in their late teens. It was organized by a large coalition of Inuvialuit organizations which included the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, Project Jewel, Aklak Air and Ulukhaktok Community Corporation. Overseeing the whole project was the Western Arctic Youth Collective (WAYC).
Intended to help Inuvialuit youth rediscover their roots and learned traditional knowledge and practices, a huge part of the trip was learning about how to harvest food from the land. Workshops on berry picking, identifying plants and roots that are edible, catching and preparing fish and general on the land safety were all on the table.
The teens learned how to identify Mountain sorrel, a wild and flowering member of the buckwheat family, catch and clean Arctic char and prepare dishes made from country food. Three Ulukhaktok-based experts were also hired to take participants out on boat rides to learn how to set nets and fish with a rod. They also learned traditional crafts such as making seal skin mittens and using fox fur and beaver pelts for the trimming.
“Being able to do that in the area helps reclaim the culture in terms of gathering food from the land,” said Cockney. “For our ancestors, that’s basically all that they had. A huge part of our culture is being on the land and relying on what the land gives us to continue on.”
Workshops on personal wellness and how to cope with life’s struggles and adversity were also held throughout the five days.
Another treat for the attendees were a pair of drum dance demonstrations — showcasing both the western style and eastern styles of traditional Inuit drumming. Cockney noted most of the people living in Inuvik have only seen the western style, so getting to connect with the other practice was exhilarating.
“A lot of the eastern-style dancers have the drum in their hand and they have different songs as well,” he said. “It was really great and really grounding for so many people, because most people around the Delta region have only seen the one type of drumming and dancing. To see the Eastern Arctic style was really great to be able to experience.”
“The whole idea is to bring the whole Inuvialuit Settlement Region back together. To reconnect a lot of the families as well as reclaiming the land that we own as Inuvialuit people.”
WAYC co-chair Corrine Bullock said the gathering was a full community effort.
“This unique and collaborative youth led and determined community event encompassing 5 days would not have been possible without the dedication and collaboration of many, many, engaged and dedicated individuals, organizations and disciplines spanning the Western Arctic,” she said. “All of which were brought together by a common vision and purpose of empowering and uniting our region and future leaders, recognizing and prioritizing our individual and collective health, exchange of knowledge in community and how our unique perspectives and capabilities across the Western Arctic can collectively strengthen, energize and lift each other up.
“Quana to the community of Ulukhaktok for generously sharing and opening your hearts and home to the group of youth, staff and facilitators that came to share and learn from and alongside you. These will be cherished memories for years to come and your grace, hospitality and love have made it abundantly clear that we must continue to work together in collaboration across our region and always strive towards creating more of these opportunities for communities to share, learn, connect and exchange with one another all around the Western Arctic.”
Cockney said he hoped collective efforts like these could continue.
“It was very-much a collaborative effort, spearheaded by Megan Lennie to make this work,” he said. “It will take a lot more work for other workshops like this, but we are very hopeful to be able to continue on doing work like this.
“Just one workshop like this is not enough. Even bringing people into the smaller and more remote communities like Sachs Harbour and Paulatuk. It’s understandable that it’s expensive to get to those communities, but that really shouldn’t stop us from connecting with the land that we have.”
