Jonah Nakimayak

He was born in the Nunavut area; came from Coppermine, Kugluktuk. He came on the dog team and he met my grandmother Helen and started having kids. He said he started going back home; he was on his way back to Kugluktuk then he turned back in Paulatuuq to come stay with his girlfriend, my grandmother. And I’m glad he did, it’s a nice place. It’s a beautiful country. I think that’s why he stayed here, man, he loves the country and all this food, there’s a lot of animals. Mostly food, ah?

One of my fondest memories was with the late Jonah Nakimiyak. Jonah and I used to go to One Island Lake and we were fishing before it was a park. When we got back as Cultural Hosts after the park was initiated in ’97, we were fishing with quads in October. Jonah Nakimiyak and Tony Green (my older brother)—we had driven up from here in Paulatuuq—we made it up to a portion of One Island Lake in the northern section of Tuktut Nogait. We went into this creek with the quads and it was so ugly, meaning that we had ice coverage going down the wrong way… ice shelves! So Jonah, Tony, and I called it Ugly Creek. And it’s been called Ugly Creek right since then!

—Ruben Green

He was my uncle, and he was always hunting, walking, energetic, fishing. He was a real person that negotiates for the people. He respects the land. He was a real role model to young hunters and taught them how to hunt and go out on the land. He was a real mentor. He was very inspirational to our park and he was also a cultural host; everybody really enjoyed the kind of things he did on the land. We named the “Jonah Nakimiyak Camp”, so that’s his camp now. I imagine he’d be really happy if he was with us now. He’d really want to see more come out of it and keep protecting the caribou.

—Bill Kudlak

His oldest is my sister Alice Thrasher. I think Johnny, Herb, Emma, Rachel and me. I’m the youngest of them all. Two of us are adopted. Rachel and I were adopted from our biological mother. He had two brothers: Moses Agnauyak and Norman Kudlak. They also came from Kugluktuk; I guess coming from Kugluktuk, they passed through what is now known as the park. The Park wasn’t situated back then. I’m pretty sure they travelled through there, going through it.

Jonah is well-known. He knows that country real well—like reading a book! He can go anywhere with anything. He’ll never get lost. He never did get lost. I think he’s self-taught, eh? He learned a lot around this country from other Elders. And he was liked pretty well by the hunters and travellers around here. It’s probably how he got to know most of the country. My other grandfather—there’s always one lake, he tells me. I think it’s Seven-Island Lakes he’s always at that’s in the park. He’s been around that area long before the park was created.

I can’t really tell much what he seen, but he was a big part of the Tuktut Nogait crew for the last maybe 20 years. He’s always been out on every trip with the park manager, or whoever he can to take out. He’s been a big part of Parks Canada crew guiding, maybe a lot of guiding he did out there. But he sure loved the company over here.

Most of his stories were all about hiking and fishing. He said the hiking is always fun; it never gets wet. He was with Ruben Green most of the time. Most of all, all the caches he seen, something about the Thule Inuit. But there’s all the caches along the river he says, like further up the river. Something we might not have expected, but by seeing that we know there’s thousand years before us, ah?

25 Years Of Tuktut Nogait

If Jonah was here today for Tuktut Nogait’s 25th anniversary, he would have loved the occasion for sure. He would’ve talked about it the whole day! Yeah, 25 years—we have come a long way. I was a young kid back then—8 years old I was when that park was made.

I remember they brought me to the gathering; I believe that was in front of the church. It was in ‘96 I believe, my grandparents brought me there and I could remember hearing bagpipes playing. That was a cool thing to see.

My Relationship With Jonah

Jonah always had stuff to do out on that Land. He didn’t really tell me much, he would mostly tell me what he caught or hunted—mostly caribou. He never really says much about the trails or what he seen. We're always out camping and always have to be with him because I was learning, and he needed the help. I was a young boy and I started hunting with him. Think I was 9 or 10. As I got older, he started trusting me enough to go hunt myself as a teenager. Then I started to have kids and we started to kind of grow apart.

Yeah, after that, we came back. We came back together and started living life together out on the Land. We’d camp at Thrasher Lake in the spring and travel all over during the fall time for caribou. That's where I know most of that trail. It's nice to be around him when you’re out on the Land; you're always laughing, always smiling. He's always got a joke, or, when you're having a hard time, he’ll try and make you smile. He will. Never does push me hard or never did. He just told me to take it slow, and sure enough, I think I learned a lot from him. He was a great teacher, my best friend, but most of all—the best teacher I ever had.