In Cambridge Bay, Annie and William Palvialok are well known for always being on hand to arrange free community activities, as well as sharing country food that they hunt with fellow residents.
A few weeks ago, the Palvialoks arranged their 11th annual Easter games on the bay ice, which takes place over three days. William says people thank them afterwards for their efforts.
Besides running the Easter games, William says volunteering in recreational activities is something he’s done for most of his life.
“[Cambridge Bay] is my region, my hometown, [but] I’ve always been volunteering… after I left residential school, I realized I needed to get involved with things to get [that] off my mind,” he says.
That was before he met Annie, who hails from Umingmaktok (Bay Chimo), when he was still a teenager.
After having two children together, it was actually their daughter at age five who suggested that the family should expand their family Easter egg hunt to make the event larger scale for the community.
“I got this into my mind,” says William, “and from then it never really stopped.”
The hunt goes on
Now William’s children are in their late teens, and he and Annie are “trying to make [the Easter egg hunt] bigger and better every year. It’s hard though, because of the cost of living,” he says.
As the Hamlet of Cambridge Bay does not shoulder any costs for this yearly event that sees up to 700 people out on the Bay ice, the money often comes out of the Palvialoks’ pockets.
Annie sells her bannock and stew in the community to raise funds, which this year netted more than $2,000 for the Easter games. There were also some generous private donations that saw a grand total of $5,000 raised to buy prizes and ingredients for the country food Annie cooks in her tent, although the sharing of country food is something that goes on all year with the Palvialoks in the community and that they are well known for in Cambridge Bay.
The focus for the Palvialoks is to offer traditional events that are different from the snowmobile races that seem to be the focus of recreation in the hamlet.
“Today, it’s always racing, racing, racing,” remarks Palvialok. “You can see the whole bay — the ice is packed with people wandering around… getting [their] spring fever back.
“It takes a lot out of you, especially when you’re dedicated to something. It’s for love of the children and families. It fills you up spiritually, and we want to keep it going, but it’s more difficult every year… we’re going to try and keep it going, but we might have to stop.”
Even now, the Palvialoks are in the process of planning something for the upcoming weekend.
“We have most of our [caribou] meat cut up already, and we’re planning on buying some candied and smoked char,” William says. “Most times, our place is packed. When you feed the community, you get so much in return.”
