Ukaususiaq: "Teachings"
We had another eventful day. We started by talking with Elijah Kakkik, an elder that recently moved into town after living for years in an outpost camp on Cumberland Sound, who knew a tremendous amount about polar bear and walrus hunting. He told us a story about a polar bear that fell from the sky and landed on its feet near a hunter who killed it. There were no tracks, the great white bear simply arrived, it is indeed an animal of devine origin.
We're sitting in the lodge now, sharing stories and photos and reflecting on the amazing people that we have interacted with today. We're starting to hear similar ideas from the elders and locals we are meeting and a narrative from the region is starting to form. They are excited to provide ukaususiaq - "teachings" - about their life ways. It's wonderful how accepting and generous everyone has been with this project.
Importantly, we are making a huge effort to give back to each of the communities that we work with for all they have shared, and today we spent part of the afternoon presenting to the local high school. The students were excited to meet Zach, Lucie and the rest of the Isuma crew and to talk about climate change and how they could get involved in the filmmaking process. Qajaaq Ellsworth, a youth video outreach coordinator, is working with and training youth in video and communication techniques as part of this project. We're hoping that we'll be able to empower youth in each region to generate their own video content about climate change that could be communicated on this website.
It's hard to believe that we only have two days left in Pang. We've got our last full day of interviews tomorrow and then we'll be traveling back to Iqaluit on Saturday. In total, we'll have interviewed over 20 people, traveled and documented extensively around the region, and engaged with this community. Indeed, the ukaususiaq is rich here, and we have learned a lot from everyone we have met.
