ANNIARUTIQPAKTIGUN QULIAT PANDEMIC STORIES 5

We asked on Facebook: How have you been keeping busy during the Pandemic?

I recently moved back home to the Arctic afer 14 years, so traditional food preparation for me! I’ve made akutuq, dried snow goose, roasted Canada goose, smoked coney soup with Labrador tea, roasted coney with wild cranberries, [and] baked maktak with smoked coney. Eating drymeat with salted whale fat dip and donuts galore that I’ve purchased (as the fry oil is hard on my kids' breathing). I only harvested a little bit of cranberries and Labrador tea. Everything else I bought through [Facebook] 'Buy/Sell' or was gifed to me since I arrived back home.

—Lynn Rose

I’ve been working as a Healthcare Aide at a COVID facility, ensuring the residents/Elders stay safe, and also providing palliative care to a couple [of] residents. I’ve been spreading happiness and cheer to the residents during my shifs!

—Geri-Lyn Guthrie

With all this free time, I wish I were out on the land. With this pandemic and retirement, I mostly listen to some ridiculous but very serious and [dangerous] news on TV. Wow! What is this world coming to? Think I’ll just go out and enjoy this weather with my brand new Ski-Doo. Take care and be safe, everyone.

—Steve Cockney Sr.

Northwest Territories

For several decades now, the Sunrise Festival freworks have been a highlight of the holiday season for many in Iñuuvik, myself included. They're a wonderful way to kick of the New Year and the return of the sunshine. The Iñuuvik Volunteer Firefghters always put on a great show and this year was no exception. COVID-19 forced many of the regular events of the Sunrise Festival weekend to be cancelled or reconfgured, but we still got our spectacle in the sky. For the last six or seven years, I've made an efort to photograph the event, each year changing my location and perspective. This year I decided to do something totally diferent and use my drone to take photos instead. I made sure to follow all safety precautions and, mostly importantly, kept my distance from the freworks themselves! It was a fun experience and something I think I'll attempt again next year. With a bit of experience under my belt I have some great ideas to do it even better in 2022. My sister Bernadette handled ground photography duties this time around, and a great time was had by all. —Kristian Binder, Eighty One Images