EdgeYK April/May 2017

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April/May 2017

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CONTENTS

ISSUE 32

April/May 2017 TWO WEEKS OF PINK

DOOK’S LOOK BACK

An adventure in eating discounted foods

Food Fights: My mother’s bi-annual battle to beat the high cost of doing business during breakup and freeze-up

Jess Dunkin.....................................19 LESSONS FROM NORWAY YK Artist Alison McCreesh’s second installment of comics from her circumpolar journey

Alison McCreesh..............................24 PADDLE PLANS COVER PHOTO Spring Breakup Series: Gateway To Winter #2

by Cody Punter codypunter.com

Some expert advice on how to execute an epic, do-it-yourself wilderness canoe trip down the Coppermine River

Contributors.......................................5

Is Yellowknife really the place where vegetarianism dies?

Front EDGE........................................7 EDGITORIAL Blanket Truths: Maggie Mercredi is helping City hall staff learn some hard lessons about residential schools and other painful aspects of Indigenous history

Laurie Sarkadi..................................9 FOUND FOOD Dark chocolate cranberry energy balls

Amy Lam.........................................15

Dan Wong.......................................32 MEAT CREEP

Amy Lam.......................................41

Catherine Dook..............................57 PAST BLAST Two Tickets to Paradise

........................................................61 EDGEYK EVENTS Your place to figure out what’s happening in Yellowknife

........................................................62

pg

9

ONE, TWO, ONE...GO! A free evening of two-step dance lessons turned out to be a fine way to melt the winter blues

Laurie Sarkadi..............................47 RETURN TO YELLOWKNIFE A shape-shifting pilgrimage back to ravens, and my birthplace

John Kidder......................................53

April/May 2017

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Viens grandir avec nous à YK1!

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EDGEYK

www.yk1.nt.ca | (867) 766-5050

CONTRIBUTORS

JESS DUNKIN Jess Dunkin moved North from Ontario in 2015. Two years, one pink house (and lots of pink-labelled discount food - see her story p.19) later, she considers herself a Yellowknifer. While she remains a historian at heart – she has a PhD in Canadian history – these days, Jess works at the NWT Recreation and Parks Association, supporting NWT communities delivering land-based programs. In her spare time, she can be found paddling, skiing, or tweeting about life in the #SpectacularNWT.

MÉLINDA TROCHU Mélinda Trochu is a French freelance journalist based in Yellowknife who spent hundreds of nights dancing while working in Beirut, Lebanon. In Australia, she was amazed by Djuki Mala, an Aboriginal group of young dancers, and while she has never two-stepped herself, she now understands its power after spending an evening photographing a beginner dance class (see p. 47). It made her smile.

EDITOR Laurie Sarkadi editor@edgeyk.ca PUBLISHER Matthew Mallon mmallon@vergecomms.ca PHOTOGRAPHER Angela Gzowski photo@agzowski.com DESIGNER Pamela Schoeman pschoeman@vergecomms.ca ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Jeremy Bird jbird@vergecomms.ca ADVERTISING SALES Dwayne Simmons dsimmons@vergecomms.ca | (867) 445-8380 FOUNDER Brent Reaney breaney@vergecomms.ca

©Copyright 2017 by:

JOHN KIDDER Since leaving his birthplace of Yellowknife in 1953, John Kidder (brother to Margot – the fabled Lois Lane in Superman) has worked across Canada as a ranch-hand, cowboy, fish plant worker, miner, agricultural economist, renewable resource manager, computer specialist, and B.C. Green Party candidate. He writes about his return visit to YK on p. 53. He’s now a hops farmer in Ashcroft, B.C. where he’s working on a book titled “The Accidental Elder.”

INCLUDING Kieran Daly, Catherine Dook, Amy Lam, Alison McCreesh, Cody Punter and Dan Wong. Thank you!

All rights reserved.

ISSN 1927-7016 (Print) ISSN 1927-7024 (Online)

info@vergecomms.ca | (867) 445-8360 Box 2451, Station Main 5112-52 Street Yellowknife, Northwest Territories X1A 2P8

EDGENORTH.CA FOLLOW US @edgenorth

EDGE

@edge_yk

April/May 2017

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FRONT EDGE

Changing it up, it’s time PERSPECTIVE IS EVERYTHING. This issue we give you a

chance to see things from a different angle, explore places you may never go, try on boots – or moccasins – you might not otherwise wear.

Maggie Mercredi is a consultant in Yellowknife whose work is literally changing the way people at city hall see themselves, and their community. I sat down with her to talk about workshops she’s organized for City employees on the history and impacts of residential schools and colonization on Indigenous peoples (p. 9). After completing the immersive, interactive day in Dettah, a city employee described the experience as “one of the most powerful eight hours of my life.”

in a meaty place like Yellowknife (p. 41). She finds neutral ground in her Found Food recipe, both sweet and healthy cranberry energy balls that make good use of that frozen stash of berries you picked last fall (p. 15). And Jess Dunkin takes us on a two-week food forage through the cheap and abundant world of pink-labelled discount products (p. 19) to decipher whether they really are a bargain.

There are no grocery stores or freezers where Dan Wong dares to venture. Whether you’re an armchair adventurer or canoeing enthusiast, Dan’s comprehensive guide to paddling the Coppermine River is sure to get you thinking about summer (I know, I know, as if we need encouragement to do that). We’ve included it this issue to give you plenty of time to plan, or maybe just dream about it (p. 32).

Dozens of people stepped out of their comfort zones to try to learn how to two-step during a free night of lessons and live music at the museum (p. 47). Photographer Mélinda Trochu and I were there to soak in the good vibes as people from all walks of life put their best feet forward (and backwards, and to the side).

Spring is a time of new beginnings, a time when the deep freeze starts to thaw. We hope you enjoy the change of scenery.

Yellowknife artist Alison McCreesh continues to journey around the circumpolar world and this issue brings her comic take on some of the cultural differences between Finland and her further travels in Norway and Sweden (p. 24).

As always, we love sharing your stories, photos, art, experiences, about Yellowknife with readers of EDGE YK. Drop me a line about your creative thoughts at: editor@edgeyk.ca

Our food writer Amy Lam looks at her dinner plate from all angles to weigh the pros and cons of being a vegetarian

-L AURIE SARKADI Editor

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EDGEYK

EDGITORIAL

Blanket Truths Story by LAURIE SARKADI Photo by ANGELA GZOWSKI

Maggie Mercredi is helping City hall staff learn some hard lessons about residential schools and other painful aspects of Indigenous history.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a good first step April/May 2017

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MOCCASINS, PAINSTAKINGLY BEADED onto moosehide scraped and tanned

by hand, were deemed inappropriate to wear to work if you were a City of Yellowknife employee until a few weeks ago. Same for those warm, beautiful mukluks. The internal dress policy was scrapped March 10. Think about that.

Canada is supposed to be redressing the painful legacy of residential schools, the government-sponsored, church-run institutions that tried for over a century to assimilate Indigenous children by wrenching them from their families – physically, emotionally and sometimes sexually abusing them – and denying every facet of their cultures: language, ceremonies, drums, how they wear their hair, dress, and yes, moccasins and mukluks.

Removing the racist dress policy of bygone days is symbolic of a larger shift taking place at city hall, a mental shift, towards understanding and relationship-building with First Nations here. To do that, the City has budgeted for all staff, the Mayor and Council, to undergo training over the next two years to learn the truth of the residential school experience.

Enter Maggie Mercredi.

Born and raised in Yellowknife and of Denesoline heritage, the owner of Ravenessence Consulting helps deliver immersive workshops to City employees designed to open their eyes, and hearts, to the impacts of institutionalized racism.

With professional acting credits to her name and a background in IT, Maggie’s move into healing work came while she was in Edmonton designing a website for the Nechi Training Research & Health Promotions Institute.

“Here I am at Nechi designing their website, and during my lunch break I go outside and sit in the arbour where they have the pow-wow,” she recalls. “I’m sitting there eating my lunch and next to the arbour is this massive building.

Then I heard that it was a residential school and I’m looking and all of the windows are boarded up, and it’s like this huge building and I remember thinking, this is a major healing institute. I am not here to design a website.”

She asked if she could receive training from the institute in lieu of payment for her web design work. Nechi agreed. Since 2006, she’s been working in community wellness. So far, she’s organized two sessions for the City about the history and legacy of residential schools and colonialism. The mayor says there's more to come.

“As a city in which 25 percent of our residents are Indigenous, it's important that we understand this history as we do our day-to-day work,” says Mayor Mark Heyck.

“As a governing body, this learning should provide us with a philosophical foundation from which we can begin to heal the relationships we have with Indigenous peoples in our own and neighbouring communities.”

So powerful is the day of learning that trained counsellors such as Maggie are on hand to help participants deal with any emotional fallout they may feel from merely role-playing some of the atrocities Indigenous people across the country have undergone at the hands of colonizers intent on cultural genocide. For example, under provincial policies an estimated 20,000 Aboriginal children were taken from their families and fostered or adopted out to primarily white middle-class families from the 1960's-1980's in the so-called Sixties Scoop. Further back there are reports the British infected blankets with smallpox as a means of germ warfare to combat Aboriginal uprisings.

“A lot of these things were not taught in history, so people are learning this for the first time,” says Maggie. “There are times when people will get up and walk away, and that’s usually what we do in our society, people will go away and it’s important to follow them and make sure they’re OK. There’s crying. There’s outrage that these things weren’t taught earlier.”

continued on p. 12

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EDGEYK

I was honestly upset that it was being forced on me.

What do residential schools have to do with municipal Finance?

”

April/May 2017

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About 30-40 City employees are bussed to the Chief Drygeese Government Building in Dettah so they’ll be compelled to be together for a full work day, without distraction. A key part of their experience is the KAIROS Blanket Exercise. The teaching tool involves assigning people roles and scripts, some with costumes. Blankets, or sheets, are laid on the ground to represent lands traditionally travelled

by Indigenous people in North America. In the middle are items traded before contact with Europeans: food, berries, tools, medicines.

says Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s 2008 apology on behalf of the federal government to former students of residential schools represents a turning point toward healing and reconciliation.

Mandatory for all City staff over the next 2 years.

I grew up in the North, I already know enough about the residential schools. Why do I have to waste a day learning what I already know?

Participants get on the blanket and pick up the items and walk through the lands, meeting each other and trading. Then the first Europeans appear, without warning, bringing trade items, but also policies, proclamations and edicts from the Pope. The Indigenous people start to lose giant chunks of their blankets as they are moved onto reserves and their children are taken to residential schools. If they speak their language they’re put in jail. At the same time, Indigenous communities turn their backs on students who return from residential schools and can no longer speak their mother tongues.

“So then the blanket starts to open again. And so when you talk about, say, the inquiry in the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls then you can open a little more of your blanket. It doesn’t go back to having the full room full of blankets that represents, this is your land, it’s like it’s still a process towards healing, towards working together.”

Maggie says the process itself, of being with colleagues and members of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation in Dettah – of having lunch together, learning and participating in a sacred feeding the fire ceremony, discussing the exercises, building a relationship – is reconciliation.

At one point a man in a top hat and cape is accompanied by a nun who tries to take a baby away. “They’re just dolls wrapped in blankets,” says Maggie. “There’s a narrator who tells about the different policies over the years and then a nun will come out and she’ll just go and she’ll grab the babies. There are some participants who will fight and then she’ll say things like, ‘This is God’s word,’ quite sternly.” One man tried to hide the baby under his clothing then squirrel it away to others, a tactic tried by many Indigenous peoples in a desperate attempt to keep their children.

Then comes the Apology.

Maggie, who did not attend residential school but whose family still feels the intergenerational effects from her grandmother’s experiences in one, 12

EDGEYK

She likens the visceral, day-long experience to advice she was given by a Dene elder 20 years ago. He said the non-traditional (Euro-Canadian) way of working together focuses on tasks, duties and getting the job done as top priority. If a relationship is developed, great, but it’s not important, he said.

Both sides get paid and there’s a focus on profit, gain and ego, yet neither side is really happy.

Whereas the traditional Dene way is to create relationship first by sharing what you have with everyone. This sharing and relationship building allows for getting to know each other and discovering we are more alike than different. If there is collective vision, trust and respect, the tasks and duties of the job then follow as the focus is on connection. Both sides are happy and healthy.

Maggie says this traditional approach forms the foundation for the training she does today. So how are City workers responding? Here’s what one employee posted on his Facebook after his experience: “I spent Wednesday at a Truth and Reconciliation Workshop in Dettah.

I was honestly upset that it was being forced on me. What do residential schools have to do with municipal Finance?

I walked in the doors of the stunning Chief Drygeese Conference Centre expecting to spend a day trying to stay awake watching PowerPoint after PowerPoint.

I walked out the doors having experienced one of the most powerful 8 hours of my life.

I was so ignorant to this disgusting part of our country’s history that I am actually embarrassed for myself.

My eyes are open.​" Whether this represents baby steps or giant leaps towards reconciliation remains to be seen, but it’s clearly a step in the right direction. Many of the 94 Calls to Action published by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada – which listened to and documented the stories of anyone personally affected by the residential school experience – involve educating the public, and civil servants specifically, on the history of Indigenous peoples. Beyond the two years already budgeted for, the City plans to offer this training to all future employees. That’s commendable, necessary, and hopefully something that will be mirrored by the territorial and federal governments.

Ignorance is a massive wall that can block meaningful change. As the City is learning first hand, in order to understand what someone is going through, you have to walk a mile in their moccasins.

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EDGEYK

FOUND FOOD

DARK

Chocolate

Cranberry

Energy Balls

Recipe and photos by AMY LAM IF YOU’RE A FORAGER, you likely squealed with delight at last year’s cranberry harvest. What, only me? Well, squeal I did when the ground last fall was literally covered with blankets of cranberries. As a good six months have passed since peak cranberry, there’s a good chance there are forgotten bags of the tart little berries squirreled away in the back of your freezer. Dig them out and combine them with dark chocolate, almonds and oats for this decadent burst of energy.

April/May 2017

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Active prep time: 20 min Makes 2 dozen 1” balls

Ingredients 5 medjool dates, pitted 1/2 cup smooth almond butter 1 tbsp ground flax seeds 1 tbsp birch or maple syrup

Directions 1. I n a food processor, add dates, almond butter, flax seeds, syrup and vanilla extract. Pulse until a thick paste forms, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

2. Add shredded coconut. Pulse until combined.

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

3. S crape the contents of the food processor bowl into a large mixing bowl.

1/3 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

4. Add oats and mix with your hands until evenly combined.

1 cup old-fashioned or quick oats

5. Add almonds, dark chocolate and continue mixing with your hands until combined.

1/4 cup of raw almonds, soaked for 4 hours, rinsed and coarsely chopped 1/4 cup of dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

6. Add frozen cranberries and quickly mix until combined.

7. Roll into 1” balls and freeze in a single layer.

1/4 cup frozen low bush cranberries Amy Lam is EDGE YK’s food writer.

Store in an airtight container for up to 3 months in the freezer.

Allow energy balls to sit out for 10 minutes from freezer before serving.

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EDGEYK

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Two Weeks of Pink An Adventure in Eating Discounted Food

by JESS DUNKIN

IF YOU’VE SPENT ANY TIME in one of Yellowknife’s two Your

Independent Grocers (YIG), you’re likely familiar with the pink reduced-for-quick-sale sticker. Most often found in the fresh produce section and deli aisles, the pink labels are an eye-catching strategy used by grocery store managers to move products quickly approaching their best-before date.

I suspect Yellowknife supermarkets have a higher percentage of pink-labelled items than stores in other places. Glen Meek, manager of the downtown Independent, thinks this is probably true, given our remote location. Perishables like spinach, yogurt, and sausage are that much older when they arrive in YK and they need to be moved that much faster.

April/May 2017

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source: Glen’s Independent Grocer

Discount Foods By the Number

10 The number of years YIG’s reduced-for-quick-sale stickers have been around

3 The number of types of stickers: 50 percent-off sticker for produce and grocery; 30 percent-off sticker for meat; 25 percent-off sticker for non-food items, like electronics

95 The estimated percentage of pinklabelled items that sell, often within a day

210 The number of pink-labelled items sold at Glen’s Independent on Oct. 23, 2016

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EDGEYK

I often buy pink-stickered products when I’m grocery shopping. I like to think I’m helping to reduce waste.

I also appreciate a good deal, especially since moving north.

Given their ubiquity in Yellowknife, I have long wondered: could a person survive exclusively on pink-labelled goods? This past fall, I decided to find out. Aware that I was unlikely to be able to get my hands on some of the staples, I gave myself a few freebies, namely butter, oil, salt, pepper, tea, and sugar. Otherwise, for the duration of the self-imposed challenge, I only bought food reduced for quick sale.

There’s a geography to pink-labelled products at the Yellowknife Independents. You can find pink-stickered items alongside regular-priced products in the dairy, meat and deli aisles. At the downtown store, discount produce is shelved by the door to the stock room – though berries and salad mix are usually labelled in their regular place – and bakery items are on a shelf at the end of aisle five. Non-perishables and household items are gathered by the cash.

On day one, I visited the usual spots at Glen’s YIG gathering salad mix, naan, raspberries, tomatoes, and cookies. I was so pleased with my inaugural haul that the next day, out of curiosity rather than necessity, I made the trip to Trevor’s YIG on Old Airport Road in search of more pink-labelled goodies. To my delight, I discovered garlic goat cheese from Salt Spring Island, apples, more tomatoes, a halal chicken, and Belgian waffles (more on those later).

I remember thinking: “This is going to be easy!” That first week was lush with berries. Most dinners began with a fancy cheese course. Good salad was always in abundance, and, to top it off, I had an excuse to eat pecan pie every day. It was so easy, in fact, I decided to tack on an extra week. It’s a good thing I did because I discovered there are boom and bust cycles in eating pink.

If week one was plentiful, then week two was a drought.

I went without cheese and yogurt – two staples in my diet – and there was very little fruit. There were also few options in the deli aisle, which made lunches difficult. I made a habit of swinging by the grocery store every morning, but to no avail. The low point was the day I ate cheese bread and pre-cut cantaloupe for lunch. Not the most nutritiously balanced meal.

Restricting myself to discount items was not unlike subscribing to an organic box. I never knew what was coming and it was not uncommon to encounter a lot of one thing, such as mushrooms, tomatoes, or hummus.

This, combined with my purchasing restrictions, meant I had to be creative. Remember that halal chicken?

Typically, I stuff roasting chickens with garlic, lemon, and fresh herbs. As these items were not to be found continued on p. 22

For images as Special as the day itself

I

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April/May 2017

21

on the discount shelf, I substituted lime and onion, not a huge leap, I know, but it still took a bit of extra thinking. Similarly, I had no problem getting my hands on fresh pasta, but what to put on it was a different story.

My attempt to make pasta sauce from discounted beef, tomatoes, and vegetables was a failure. I repurposed the rather watery concoction to become wrap filling. The result was a little soggy, though not bad on the palate.

I found myself making more trips to the grocery store during the two weeks of pink, in part out of curiosity – what treasures might I have missed out on otherwise? – but also because I had to be on top of what I was eating.

More trips to the grocery store meant more groceries, which occasionally resulted in creating the very waste I was trying to avoid.

I also found myself trying things just because they were discounted. I bought goat’s milk for the first time; I discovered some new-to-me Canadian cheeses; and I was pleasantly surprised by the Sumac, Honey, and Mint Labneh, a recent addition to the President’s Choice line. Not all experimentation turned out favourably. Case in point, Oakrun Farm’s “Authentic” Belgian Waffles. I can assure

“

For the most part, I flaunt my pink-stickered produce eating…

”

you there is absolutely nothing authentic about these chemically flavoured and overbearingly sweet hunks of yuck.

In addition to making me feel nauseous, the waffles taught me an important lesson: just because something is discounted doesn’t mean it’s a deal. This lesson worked in other ways as well, namely I purchased items that, while discounted, were still more expensive than foods I normally bought, including the goat’s milk and Salt Spring cheese. Likewise, sometimes the state of the item meant I was paying the same amount or more than for regularly-priced produce. During week two, I bought two green peppers (a food I normally avoid because of their bitter flavour) for the price of one, only to discover that one was filled with mould.

With few exceptions, the green pepper being one of them, the discount and often “expired” food I consumed over the two weeks was perfectly fine. The goat’s milk was still edible nine days after the best-before date, though I never quite acclimated to its tangy flavour. Even the meat I bought was OK a couple of days post-expiry – and meat is one of the foods even critics of date labels suggest adhering to. This experience further confirmed what I have long believed, that best-before dates can mean very little.

22

EDGEYK

Discount stickers exist because YIGs are not allowed to sell expired items. Store managers are required to place a pink label on items the day before their best before date. Prior to 2008, stores in the NWT threw out expired items. With the passage of the Donation of Food Act by the NWT Legislative Assembly grocers now have the option to donate expired food.

This has been a boon for Yellowknife’s Food Rescue program, which redistributes expired and overstock food from grocery stories and mining camps to schools and local non-profits, such as the YWCA and Centre for Northern Families.

Not all items with a pink triangle are at the end of their shelf-life. A manager may choose to apply a pink label because a product is damaged or because of excess stock.

At summer’s end, Glen’s YIG had an abundance of ice cream syrup slated to expire in November. Rather than wait, Glen used the pink triangle in September to move the overstock.

Interestingly, discount labels put control over pricing into the hands of the manager; all other pricing is mandated by the corporate head office.

Glen likes the pink sticker for a number of reasons, not least because it attracts customers, but particularly those on a fixed income: “Some people come specifically for these items. They will go to the reduced bread shelf before they buy something fresh,” he says. Reduced for quick sale stickers also limits the number of items the store throws out. While this cuts into gross profit, selling a pink-stickered item doesn’t result in a loss of product inventory, or shrink, the bane of the grocery store manager.

Last year, the reduced-for-quick-sale stickers went through a rebrand. The familiar pink triangle has been exchanged for a black circle ringed with orange; the pink oval used for meat is now a yellow oval with a black border. Glen prefers the pink sticker because “it catches the eye.” For this reason, he has held off using the new stickers, though as the old stock declines, he will soon have no choice.

Though I only officially ate discounted groceries for two weeks, it’s been difficult to wean myself off eating pink, and so long as I avoid Oakrun Farm’s Authentic Belgian Waffles, why should I? I’m diverting waste and saving money. I spent $155 during the two weeks of eating pink – that’s about $50 less than what I’d normally spend in that time.

For the most part, I flaunt my pink-stickered produce eating, proudly sharing my discounted organic milk or steaks with friends and family. Over the holidays, though, I was invited to a cocktail party where I was an unknown quantity.

Minutes before we were to leave the house, I was madly scraping the pink sticker off the cheese I was bringing to share. When my efforts proved unsuccessful, I did the next best thing: offered to display the cheese and its accompanying crackers so that my host and the other guests were none the wiser.

I have a hard time finishing books lately, but I started your book and I couldn’t stop reading it. I love how you metaphorically tie the stories to animals. I haven’t enjoyed a book this much since Eat, Pray, Love.

DehDiah Gargan • Every sentence, every page, was a gift. - Lois Little I am so happy I came across [Voice in the Wild]. It has made the hour of useless facebooking worth it. I love it. I just wanted to say thanks fo sharing. - Brandon T. Brown • It brought tears to my eyes. Your book was one of the first books I have read from start to finish in the past year. I took my time and enjoyed every word. Every experience. Thank you for writing it. - Vivian Hansen • It’s like Eat, Pray, Love but for wild people. People who would find meaning, strength and maybe even comfort in a bear or wolf encounter. I hope a million people read it. It’ really good. - Loren McGinnis • Thank you for bringing light to the stigma around reporting disclosures from students. Also, beautiful to read your words about being a mom, especially in the early days. Can’ wait to give a copy to my mom and friends. - Raegan Delisle • Brave, honest and beautifully written. Thanks for sharing your story. - Penny Ballantyne • You’re a true inspiration towards balance in life, toward ove and positive energy. - Kate Cannell • I just soaked in the final word I could not put this book down. - Rebecca Chouinard • It’s a palette fo the senses: you can taste it and smell it and hear it. - Kate Hearne • It was absolutely what I needed at the time (when the student is ready th teacher will appear) so it was perfect. - Audrey Henderson • My son, Andrew Pacey, sent me your book Voice In The Wild for Christmas. I’m OF half way through. EnjoyingBE thePART book. Interesting perspectives. Always learning.CONVERSATION Thank you. -Kathy Kirk Pacey THE @LaurieSarkadi

E-book downloads and print copies are available from: lauriesarkadi.com Order three or more and receive free bulk shipping within Canada.

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Available in Yellowknife at: Verge Communications (5112 52nd Street), Yellowknife Book Cellar, Down to Earth Gallery, Northern Images & Northern Frontier Visitors Centre April/May 2017

23

Lessons from Norway and Sweden

YK Artist Alison McCreesh notes the finer points of culture and geography in this second installment of comics from her epic circumpolar journey KNOWN FOR HER GRAPHIC NOVEL Ramshackle and Chilly

Chicken Creations, McCreesh has been voyaging with her partner and their young son on a circumpolar odyssey since last November. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s completing four residencies for her project North[s] â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Observations on Dark Days. First stop was Finland, followed by a tour of northern Norway and Sweden. Hope you enjoy this next installment of her signature comics looking at the complexities of the simple life.

11

You don't need a Fat Bike to bike in the winter.

You just need a snowsuit and a helmet that fits over your toque.

Don't believe me? Just ask hundreds of school kids.

12

Spraying down your bum is always appropriate.

In pretty much all washrooms including at the library and on the train - there are little bum telephone showers next to the toilets.

24

EDGEYK

13

I n the land of the real Santa, being a fake Santa is legitimate employment.

On the grocery store bulletin boards between kittens to give away and bikes for purchase - there's a fine selection of Santas for hire.

14

Being over 80 is no excuse for staying home.

The elderly who are a bit too unsteady to bike instead tear around on cool devices that are a combination of a walker and a 4-wheeled scooter. Push. Ride.

Repeat.

15

ven in the land of Santa, E small children are unimpressed.

Maybe the Christmas Market should have picked a different Santa from the selection on the grocery store bulletin board?

April/May 2017

25

16

hort days are even shorter S when you're on the edge of a time zone.

There's a bus station right on the border between Finland and Sweden. Out the front door it's one hour later than the back door.

17

Toddlers know no language barriers.

Nobody understands them, regardless of the origin or mother tongue.

18

ravelling by train can T make certain things anticlimactic.

If we want a photo with a big sign, I guess we'll have to drive the Dempster again.

continued on p. 28

26

EDGEYK

April/May 2017

27

19

I ntroversion is not Scandinavia wide.

Unfortunately, we have now adapted to the Finnish way and must appear hostile to the friendly Norwegians.

20

um spraying devices B are not Scandinavia wide.

Fortunately, we have not adapted to THAT Finnish way.

21

ucumber and red peppers C are legitimate breakfast staples.

They perfectly complement cold cuts, cheese and bread.

continued on p. 30

28

EDGEYK

That’s not the SPRING you were looking forward to seeing!

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Two single beds shoved together can pass for a double.

But then how do you position the two single duvets?

Parallel or perpendicular?

23

Save layering for skiing.

It may be smart for outdoor adventure, but it's a nightmare of logistics when it comes to transit. If you're not dressed in time, it's chaos.

If you put your gear on too soon, you sweat more than you could ever possibly imagine.

24

urora tourism is a A thing here too.

And it's weather reliant here too.

25

spectacularly scenic A train ride isn't as spectacularly scenic in a snowstorm.

Aurora tourists, we share your pain.

30

EDGEYK

Contact me any time with your questions or concerns

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April/May 2017

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Story and photos by DAN WONG

32

EDGEYK

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s never too early to start gearing up for your next big summer adventure. Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s some expert advice on how to execute an epic, do-it-yourself wilderness canoe trip down the Coppermine River

April/May 2017

33

Kugluk (Bloody Falls)

L

ast year I embarked on a voyage down the historic Coppermine River, and returned with a lot of experience that I’d like to pass on to anyone interested in trying the trip for themselves. The information below will get you started with some useful advice and ideas.

(Note: “left” and “right” are used as if you are looking downstream.)

Point Lake

WHERE AND WHEN DO I START?

The Coppermine River is 845 km long with headwaters near Lac de Gras. While the river receives 10-12 trips each summer season, many of the two-week guided expeditions begin south of the “Big Bend,” about 225 km from Kugluktuk and the Arctic coast. We decided to start 475 km upstream at Point Lake near Peterson’s Lake Lodge. If you start here, I’d recommend you give yourself three weeks sometime in the month of August. The fall season relieves you from bugs, and delivers berries, arctic char, a caribou migration and the spectacular colours of the tundra.

Yellowknife

The advantages to starting at Point Lake: • You can take in a few days of trout fishing and exploration on Point, Red Rock and Rock Nest Lakes • You’ll avoid almost 375 km of lake paddling from Lac de Gras, but at marginal extra cost in charter fees • Check out Peterson’s Point Lake Lodge to get your expedition off to the right start. Their facilities make for a comfortable stay and ideal basecamp to get your bearings If you do decide to start at Point Lake, watch out for a Class III rapid about three km downstream of the confluence with Napaktolik River (65°42’08.91”N 114°09’42.68”).

It’s a staircase-like cascade littered with big boulders, threeto four-foot ledges, and must-make moves. It’s a short carry, best portaged on the right.

WHITEWATER SKILL: HOW MUCH DO I NEED?

Not as much as you probably think. You don’t need to be an advanced paddler in moving water. There are challenging rapids with serious consequences, but remember that the Coppermine River is a river-system. It’s a network of flat-water lakes and sections of river, much of which runs slowly with relaxing current. You should have experience in overnight, self-propelled wilderness travel, be able to control your boat in current and in high winds, and be proficient in both self and assisted rescues.

Because accidents can happen to the best of us, consider enrolling in a local swift-water rescue or wilderness first aid course. Jack Pine Paddle (jackpinepaddle.com) will be continued on p. 36

34

EDGEYK

Map: GNWT Centre for Geomatics.

Middle: Kugluk (Bloody Falls).

Right: Dan Wong and Arctic Grayling.

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Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre

April/May 2017

35

launching this spring to provide high-quality safety training for paddlers in Yellowknife, with Paddle Canada certified instructors.

WHAT CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT THE RAPIDS?

The most challenging whitewater days will come at the very end of your trip, offering ample time to hone your skills in the upper sections. With loads of Class I and II features to keep you excited, there are two rapids that merit special mention: Rocky Defile Rocky Defile (67°02’07.77”N, 116°12’11.86W) is one of the spiciest rapids you’ll encounter. Granite cliffs funnel the river down a one-km canyon, with some nasty features you’ll want to avoid. As you enter the canyon with a decked boat, stay just to the left of the large waves coming off the steep wall to right. Keep to the middle and as the canyon veers right, set your angle and start moving to the far right, staying away from the strong eddies and ledges on the left and an SUV-sized boulder in the middle of the river.

There is plenty of space and time to make your moves.

You’d also be wise to scout the line in advance, as rapids can change over time and with fluctuating water levels.

If you don’t like what you see, the portage trail is on the right shore.

Kugluk (Bloody Falls) Approximately 17 km before you reach Kugluktuk, you’ll arrive at Kugluk Territorial Park. Here, the Coppermine River rips down a narrow Class VI gorge. This is a traditional fishing and gathering place, with an old campsite located below the whitewater called “Onoagahiovik,” meaning the “place where you stay all night” (because the fishing is that good). As you approach Kugluk (Bloody Falls) don’t believe your NTS 1:50,000 maps, since the portage is located on the left, not on the right as marked.

HOW MUCH WILL FLIGHTS COST?

Your flights will cost a small fortune and will be your largest expense of the trip.

The charter flight from Yellowknife will be $900 - $2,000 per person, depending on your group size, the type of float plane you are chartering, and the distance you need to fly to your starting point. For groups of three or less, I’d recommend Steve Jeffery at Ahmic Air (Ahmicair.com).

Steve and his pilots operate a DHC-2 Beaver aircraft with enlarged windows for greater visibility. This makes for a memorable float-plane flight that will be remembered as a highlight of your adventure. It’s also worth checking with Chuk at Plummer’s Lake Lodge at Great Bear Lake if there is space available on one of their weekly flights when the lodge is operating. Once at the lodge, you may be able to charter the lodge-owned Single Otter a short distance to the Coppermine River.

For larger groups of four or more, you may need to charter a Caravan/Twin Otter from Air Tindi (Airtindi.com). Keep in mind that if you’re planning on taking multiple canoes with you, they will likely need to nest together when strapped to the outside of a floatplane. Nested canoes need to be able to fit completely inside one another, with the yoke, seats and thwarts removed and reassembled on site. Consider pack canoes to increase your charter flight options and trim your bill significantly.

If you have six weeks or more it’s possible to sidestep the charter cost completely by paddling to the Coppermine River from Yellowknife.

Once in Kugluktuk, you can expect to pay around $800 to return to Yellowknife on a direct, scheduled, First Air flight (every weekday). Big discounts are available for members of the Union of Northern Workers but you’ll need to show your union card upon boarding. First Air will also securely store your canoe in Kugluktuk and fly it back to Yellowknife on a cargo plane for approximately $160.

WHAT SHOULD I BRING?

Consider a few key items:

Cliffs in the Rocky Defile Rapid Canyon.

Binoculars: the Coppermine River valley is teeming with animals. A good pair of binos will give you the best chance to get close to Bathurst caribou, muskoxen, moose, tundra swans, wolves, barren-land grizzly bears and wolverines. continued on p. 38

36

EDGEYK

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37

You stand an excellent chance at spotting nesting raptors, including gyrfalcons, peregrine falcons, rough-legged hawks, and golden/bald eagles.

DSLR camera with a good zoom lens: if you’re going to be surrounded by stunning wilderness and rare wildlife, you might as well bring back some jaw-dropping photographs to share with friends and family.

A strong, bomb-proof tent: your campsites can be exposed, windy as heck, and subject to rain, hail and snow. Bring a tent that you trust with adequate tie-down points.

Rubber boots: if it’s cold, windy and wet, you’ll want to keep those feet dry. Rubber boots are a guide’s secret for comfortable work around the water’s edge (loading and unloading canoes, doing dishes, and fishing).

A glass of scotch for the moment you cross the Arctic Circle (66°33′46.4″ N): come on and live a little, you’ll have earned it.

CAN YOU EAT LOCAL?

Absolutely. If on the river in mid-late August, you’ll likely be able to supplement your oatmeal, desserts and snacks with ample supplies of blueberries, crowberries, cranberries and alpine bearberries, common throughout the Coppermine River system.

Then there's the char. Considered by many chefs to be superior to salmon or trout, the richly flavoured flesh of the Arctic char is unmistakable. We had good results on silver spoons, which are effective flashers in the bright light and clear waters of the lower Coppermine River. If you are into fly-fishing, Arctic char will eagerly rise to a variety of flies from streamers/wet flies to dry flies and/or nymphs.

When you catch your first Arctic char, consider a simple recipe from Luluz Market Executive Chef Jason Kirby:

ARCTIC CHAR WITH LIME BEURRE NOISETTE SAUCE

1. A dd a little bit of vegetable oil to a pan and heat until it starts to smoke 2. P lace your arctic char fillet skindown on the pan until skin is golden brown 3. A dd 50g of butter to the pan and flip the filet until it is cooked, then remove from pan and set aside 4. Continue to heat butter until it starts to brown, squeeze a fresh lime or lemon into the pan, and pour over the arctic char 5. Add salt and pepper to taste, garnish with parsley or wild greens, and serve immediately

ANY FINAL TIPS? 38

EDGEYK

• Secure your canoe to something solid every single night. There are few things worse than waking up the morning after a windy night to a camp with no canoe

• If overnighting in Kugluktuk at the end of your journey, free camping is available at the northwest end of town. Also – don’t miss the new Visitor and Heritage Centre

• There is a stunning, must-camp campsite on a rocky ledge to the right just after Escape Rapids (67°337’21.52”N 115°28’41.79”W).

Firewood is scarce but your best bet is to scavenge in the willows nearby

• Tread lightly on the land and endeavor to pack out everything (and more) than you bring in

STAY TUNED FOR UPCOMING DATES IN 2017!

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Edge ad

meat creep Is Yellowknife really the place where vegetarianism dies?

EDGE YK food writer Amy Lam explains the politics and the passion behind what she chooses to eat

April/May 2017

41

A

bout a month after moving to Yellowknife four years ago, I had lunch with two people I’d just met who were also relatively recent transplants to the city. We gathered at the sadly no-longerexistent Smokehouse Café for its lunch buffet. They piled their plates with bison and smoked char, while my plate filled with the pasta special of the day, rice, veggies and salads.

There was a chuckle when they realized I was vegetarian. I was told that Yellowknife is the place where vegetarianism dies. Meat creep starts with the fish I was told, and then the occasional bite of wild meat that you won’t be able refuse – unless you want to be rude to your host who literally killed for your meal. Before you know it, it’s full-out-wings night every Wednesday. “It’s very common.

I know at least three well-intentioned, long-term vegetarians that have converted since moving here.

Don’t bother fighting it,” I was advised in a way that can only be relayed by a smug meat eater to a self-righteous vegetarian.

Prior to moving to Yellowknife I had not had red meat for about 16 years, poultry for about eight, and fish for about four. I had stopped eating the larger animals first, with the common, if not entirely correct, logic that size somehow correlated to sentience.

For me, choosing not to eat meat stemmed from moral reasons, but also environmental reasons. Our society’s model of factory farming has been widely documented to be cruel – for both the animals and those who work with them – and a large contributing factor to worldwide environmental degradation and climate change.

However, thinking back to that lunch at the Smokehouse now, it’s not hard to argue which meal was more ecologically sound – the somewhat local bison and char, or the vegetables and grains grown in unknown locations and conditions and then trucked up north.

42

EDGEYK

I moved to Yellowknife from Toronto. It was super easy being a vegetarian there. Trendy even. Friends who could never imagine giving up meat would indulge in the occasional meatless Monday and not put up a fight when you suggested dining at a vegetarian place. Raw-food bars, vegetarian comfort-food diners, vegan-poutine joints, you name it. Toronto is an extremely accommodating city for its vegetarians and vegans. Yellowknife, not so much.

Vegetarian options at Yellowknife restaurants are an afterthought (I moved here pre-Zehabesha, the popular Ethiopian restaurant and now standard go-to option for a nourishing vegetarian meal) and my dietary choices were much harder to socially integrate. Vegetarians are a much smaller subgroup and we’re living on land that has been traditionally dependent largely on animals for sustenance. Moose and caribou are revered here.

Eating fish started almost immediately. A welcome-to-Yellowknife meal at Bullocks was supposed to be an exception, but the accessibility of some of the best fish in the world was hard to resist. The fish here is fresh, affordable and comes from waters that are not overfished. I had my first taste of wild meat almost two years ago in Hay River. I was taking a course at the Northern Farm Training Institute (NFTI) along with students from all over the territory. NFTI teaches sustainable and practical agricultural skills adapted to northern climates, with aims of promoting food security in our northern communities. The food served at the courses was always very good and included locally grown, foraged continued on p. 44

Amy eating moose. Photo by Tara Tompkins.

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Eric

“

So while I did not kill for my food, something did have to die

or hunted ingredients. The students were told we could bring wild meat to share, should we want to do so.

In that particular course, a moose roast was contributed and slowly simmered for hours in a red wine sauce by our chef. I took a bite, and it was delicious. Despite not having had red meat for 18 years at that point, it did not taste unfamiliar or feel weird. My digestive system did not revolt.

I was happy to have participated socially in that meal and pleased at my bravery in having tried the moose. I continued on with my pescetarian diet and didn’t make an active choice to eat meat again until last year. What finally wore me down was a combination of bouts of anemia that supplements weren’t able to remedy, a reexamination of why I chose not to eat meat and a better understanding of the ecology of a sustainable food system. Right now, I’m at the occasional-bite-ofwild- (or sustainable) meat phase of deprogramming my vegetarianism.

The irony is not lost on me that it took learning how to grow my own vegetables to change my views on eating meat. We are so far removed from our food systems and the natural world that most of us don’t know what’s involved in growing food. Our exposure to procuring food is largely limited to perfectly graded items on store shelves.

But when you grow your own food, you quickly learn that life does not exist without death.

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”

I wanted to grow in sustainable ways, according to natural ecology.

This meant avoiding chemical fertilizers, pesticides and fossil fuels.

Which also meant that my soil was nourished with bone and blood meal, manure and compost. Bone and blood. So while I did not kill for my food, something did have to die.

At the risk of sounding cliché, it’s the circle of life.

None of my arguments for being a vegetarian made sense here.

Morally, I do not have an issue with wild meat if it is hunted in a sustainable and respectful way.

In a balanced ecology, there is an important role for the predator and prey. A sustainable environment requires both. Ecologically, is a vegetarian-based diet sustainable?

Not within our current model of industrial agriculture. This model requires continuous high inputs of fossil fuels, synthetic chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides.

All of this, combined with heavy tillage and irrigation, is degrading topsoil, a vital part of life on earth.

While no animals were killed directly for my brown rice, the decline of biodiversity and wildlife for agricultural land meant blood was still on my plate. My intentions for a more sustainable world through a vegetarian diet were well meaning, but misguided.

Can the world eat less meat?

Definitely. Should we eliminate meat altogether? Yes and no.

Strong arguments can be made that

our model of livestock production is not sustainable. It’s so far removed from farming that it’s no longer even called farming.

They’re now called animal feeding operations (AFO) or concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO).

Livestock is kept in confined spaces and fed a diet of mostly soy and corn, a diet not natural to the digestive systems of these animals.

The soy and corn are grown in conditions that are unsustainable for the reasons already mentioned above. If this is the model of meat production that we’re working with, then yes, eliminate. But the world still needs to be fed. All 7.4 billion of us.

So how do we feed a world? I’m not sure. Wild harvest and wild meat is good, but it certainly can’t sustain our population. The model that reconciles the most with me morally and environmentally is one that is local, small scale and regenerative.

I use the word regenerative rather than organic as a regenerative farming system uses a system of proper and respectful livestock management as an input for growing food. In turn, the output of food will also play a role in feeding animals. We’re back to the circle of life again. Funny how nature has it right, isn’t it?

All these years I was fighting against eating meat, but what I really should have been fighting against was a broken agricultural and food system. I now eat fish and I have made a choice to occasionally eat wild or sustainable meat, but have continued to opt of out of Wednesday wings night – not quite fulfilling the predictable pattern of a doomed vegetarian in Yellowknife.

I have chosen to subscribe to the wisdom of food activist Michael Pollan, “Eat Food. Not too much.

Mostly plants.”

Photo : Peter Macmahon / Parks Canada / Parcs Canada

Celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation.

Célébrez le 150e anniversaire de la Confédération. parkscanada.gc.ca/woodbuffalo parcscanada.gc.ca/woodbuffalo

Serving Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories

116 Curry Dr, Yellowknife • 867-920-2500 April/May 2017

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ONE, TWO, ONE...GO! Story by LAURIE SARKADI Photos by MÉLINDA TROCHU

A free evening of two-step dance lessons turned out to be a fine way to melt the winter blues IT WAS BILLED AS a beginner’s class for newbie two-steppers, an easygoing chance to see if those two left feet could be coerced into something a little more coherent, something that moved two steps one way, and one step the other, over and over again. With the exception of half-a-dozen people whose confident glide and twirl made it clear this was not their first time at the rodeo, most of the rest of the dance-curious Yellowknifers who’d ventured out to the Prince of Wales Heritage Centre on a cold February night had never twostepped.

Baby Brian’s Country Club, a local band with an endless repertoire of old country tunes by legendary artists – Dwight Yoakam, Shania Twain, George Jones, Willie Nelson – plus a few originals by frontman Brian Weadick, warmed up the room April/May 2017

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as roughly 50 people of all ages gathered in the Museum Cafe for the free evening.

Instruction by host William Greenland was brief, including mention of the Texas Two Step (which is more of a foxtrot with four steps), but tonight, he told us, “you’ll be learning the Dene way.”

Directly above: Instructors Cheyanna Fraser and William Greenland demonstrate, while Baby Brian's Country Club (below) provided live music to some 50 dancers.

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Stepping two forward and one back with petite co-instructor Cheyanna Fraser, whose handmade sealskin kamiks seemed to barely touch the floor, Greenland assured people it’s OK to count out loud when you’re learning, and to watch your steps at first, “but try not to make giant leaps – it will make you very tired by the end of the song.” If you just listened to the music and followed along, in no time you’d be able to hit-up the Gold Range dance floor with style, he assured. And with that, pianist Mary Kelly started singing, somewhat prophetically, Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces” as the couples ventured forth.

Traditionally, the two-step is a progressive dance that moves counterclockwise around the dance floor, with the lead dancer gently guiding the follower in a

way that helps keep them from crashing into other couples. That helpful hint was overlooked, so the first dance looked a bit like bumper cars at the fair, peoples’ faces a study of concentration, lips moving to the count as dancers lurched awkwardly into one another without ever really gaining momentum. Despite the organized confusion, there was more laughter than grumbles and nobody gave up mid-song.

“It was good, I sort of remember doing the two-step at the Gold Range many years ago,” said Adrian D’Hont after his first dance. “It was my idea to come out and (wife) Dawn really grabbed onto it.”

Carole Musialek and Valerie Gamache laughed their way through the first dance, stepping on one another’s toes before retreating to a table where they enjoyed some food and a glass of wine. Musialek explained their motivation for coming out tonight: “We went to the Fort Simpson festival and they have a community feast at night and there was dancing with a band and people were asking us to dance and so we wanted to learn.” continued on p. 50

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Couples night out (right).

Madeline Nakimayak and Allen Pascal danced the night away (below) adding to the sea of diverse footwear.

“

A lot of people my age don’t like country music, but if they knew how to dance they’d get into it.

”

One of the youngest couples, Allen Pascal, 20, and Madeline Nakimayak, 18, were relentless in their efforts to master the moves.

“It’s my first time and it’s fun, a little sore on the hips,” said Pascal. Nakimayak, originally from Paulatuk, said she’s more used to square dancing but had two-stepped before and found the evening “a really good time.”

Midway through the night a spontaneous jigging lesson broke out, giving Baby Brian’s trio a break as the stereo cranked out some fiddle tunes. Fraser – who at just 22 has won several jigging contests – gave a short lesson along with her mother Karen, and then the students gave it a try.

A sea of diversely clad feet – hiking boots, plaid socks, green gumboots, sealskin boots and beaded moccasins – whipped into action.

“I love it and everyone caught on so fast,” said Fraser of the group’s increasing ability to both jig and two-step with assurance. “They’re not so stiff now. A lot of people my age don’t like country music, but if they knew how to dance they’d get into it.”

The inspiration for the evening of lessons, with prizes, a cash bar and burgers and fries on offer, came from Mike Mitchell, who noticed that hardly anyone knew how to two-step during the annual Royal Ball at last year’s Snowking Festival. He was surprised and encouraged by the turnout. Given that two-stepping has roots reaching back 200 years to places like Germany, Hungary and Mexico, not to mention its widespread appeal amongst northerners, the night was a multi-ethnic melding of cultures and people, and a fine way to shake off the winter blues.

Two hours later the room seemed to have taken on a new energy. Musialek and Gamache were doing much better.

Brows had unfurled. Lips were no longer counting.

People were able to converse with their dance partners while muscle memory guided their feet. But were they ready to transfer these newly acquired skills to the Gold Range, the ultimate two-stepping venue? I put the question to Adrian D’Hont.

“If I could ever manage to stay up that late again, sure.”

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YOU’RE COMING THIS WAY ANYWAYS.

Why not stop and stay for a while?

STAY WITH ONE OF OUR PARTNERS IN TOURISM The Town of High Level has a number of quality hotels for you to choose from when planning your trip away from Yellowknife.

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780-926-2201 | HIGHLEVEL.CA April/May 2017 51

Reusable fur hand and foot warmers slip into your gloves/ mittens or boots/shoes adding an incredibly effective layer of traditional warmth and Northern comfort.

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We offer everything from a bachelor suite to 4 bedroom townhome.

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Please call or email me to discuss issues of concern to you and to share your ideas Kevin_O’Reilly@gov.nt.ca | 867-767-9143 ext. 12110 | www.mla-framelake.ca 52

EDGEYK

Return o YelloWknife t Story by JOHN KIDDER Illustration by KIERAN DALY

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"John was born on October 24, 1947.

Kendall drove me from the caboose to the hospital at the Con Mine about three o'clock in the morning, in an old mine four by four with no windshield. When we got to the hospital we had trouble getting in because the screen door was latched on the inside. A passing inebriated miner saw we were having trouble, and yanked the door off its hinges. John was born about six o'clock, and Ollie Stanton arrived just in time to catch him."

A shape-shifting pilgrimage back to ravens, and my birthplace RAVEN, THE TRICKSTER, seems to

me the soul of the North. He and his brothers and sisters are everywhere, hanging out, tossing garbage around, harassing "nobler" birds like eagles, making obnoxious noises, shitting on vehicles. There’s always something sly about a raven. Shapeshifting tricksters, each of them.

I love them. I love to be tricked, pranked, shifted. And here I am, all of the above, back in the North where I came from. Most times, it's easy to forget I was born 69 years ago in Yellowknife, and spent my youth in northern Québec and Labrador. I am, in fact, a child of the North. Here, Raven reminds me every day.

My mother, Jill Kidder, had to shift her entire being when she came up here after the war with my father Kendall. She made her first married home in a caboose from a cat train, down in Old Town on what is now Ragged Ass Road. She wrote letters home, one just after I was born:

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My sister Margot was born a year later, in the new Red Cross hospital. We left in 1953, to the east, but still to the North. The North is so much a part of my body that I feel completely comfortable and relaxed just hanging out, watching the ravens wheeling. And while I have no direct memory of Old Town, it sure feels like home.

I’m told that childhood memories become encoded in the body – deep, often undisturbed by daily living, but always conditioning the entire context of one's being. Here, it's the unremembered, but automatic, slightly-more-careful-than-normal walk on surfaces that might be icy and the almost-automatically arrested skid when they are; the slight cocking of the head to get the breeze a bit less forceful in the cheeks; the seeking of the sunlight at every turn; the ease of conversation with strangers. It's as if I’ve shucked off some southern skin to see again my hidden, northern, self.

Contrasts everywhere – in the museum, the wonders of ancient craftsmanship and traditional lives on the land; videos of massive permafrost slumps as global warming forever changes the future. At the legislature, clerks dressed like British barristers in black gowns and white dickies, pages in mukluks and moccasins; everyone bowing towards the Speaker and the Mace, beautifully crafted from northern materials but still the great symbol of foreign imperial power. The haphazard scattering of buildings in Old Town; formal square streets downtown. Houseboats afloat as winter ice begins to lock them in.

The riches generated by Con and the Giant mines; the legacy of poisons underground and in the waters. Carvers in dusty Quonset huts using modern tools to shape ancient images in billion-year old stone. Tricksters all; nothing is as it first appears.

This has been a bit of a shape-shift, this little pilgrimage to my birthplace. In addition to all the other privileges I live with (white, male, educated, healthy, rich by any world standard, etc.), I have the privilege of knowing, and of having hidden but deeply embedded in me, some small parts of the North. Some joyful glee in the Trickster, a secret sharing. How happy I feel tonight, back home in Yellowknife.

April/May 2017

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DOOK'S LOOK BACK

$

vs

FOOD FIGHTS

$

BY CATHERINE DOOK

$

My motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bi-annual battle to beat the high cost

of doing business during breakup & freeze-up

$

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$ $ $ Photo by J. McClinton.

The Merv Hardie ferry docking at the Mackenzie River crossing near Fort Providence in 1985. NWT Archives, Northwest Territories. Department of Public Works and Services fonds, accession number G-1995-001, item number 0654.

IN 1970 THERE WAS NO BRIDGE across the Mackenzie River at Fort Providence. We didn’t even have the Merv Hardie Ferry, which soon after started moving passengers and freight during the warm months when the river flowed. All we had was an ice road in winter and the barge from Hay River in summer. Every fall and spring during breakup and freeze-up of the Mackenzie, we had neither modes of transportation, so groceries had to be flown in to Yellowknife at great expense. That’s when Mom would complain.

“Grocery prices are sky-high, and on EVERYTHING,” she’d decry. “Staples too, and I’m sure they stock up on them before the season. It’s not reasonable.” It seemed a gross imposition to Mom. Meat and produce and dairy were fair game, but flour and sugar?

Raisins and vanilla? If she ran out of vanilla, she wouldn’t bake until the ice froze. She clicked her tongue in disapproval, and during her ladies’ sewing circle you would hear a generalized murmur of indignation as they grizzled in chorus.

There were two grocery outlets in Yellowknife in 1970. First, there was the Hudson’s Bay Company, which also sold clothes and dry goods and cabinet-sized 8-track players.

I bought my first bra in the Hudson’s Bay ladies’ lingerie department from one of my mother’s friends. “Something with a little padding, I think,” she trilled, and I nearly died of embarrassment. Our other choice for groceries was Newton Wong’s store. There was a certain rivalry between the stores, of course. They sent spies into each others’ groceterias to scrutinize prices, though Newton Wong’s undercover agents were easier to spot than those of the HBC. Caucasians all look alike.

Several summers I worked for the HBC punching a cash register in the groceteria.

One day, between till customers, I bummed a Players Filter cigarette from Miles the groceteria manager. I was happily puffing on it in his office, when who should arrive to exchange some faulty light bulbs but my mother. She did not comment or appear unduly startled, but it was the first time she’d officially caught me smoking, and after she left I confessed all to my boss.

“Oh no!” he moaned. “She’s going to blame me. A good customer for 30 years, and now she’s going to go over to the Chinaman.”

“Miles,” I told him, “My mother is a very smart woman.

She KNOWS which of the two of us to be mad at.” I was not wrong. She identified the culprit with ease.

But despite the jostling for customers, Mom was sure the two grocery stores colluded on prices during breakup and freeze-up. She comparison shopped without mercy, and came home happy if she shaved off a few cents here or there. She read price labels and flyers, and shook her head.

She tried to ‘buy ahead,’ listening to the radio weather reports and guessing what would happen to the Mackenzie River.

Catherine Dook was born in Yellowknife where her father worked as a bush pilot.

She is the author of three humour books and now lives onboard the sailing vessel Inuksuk in Cowichan Bay, B.C. with her husband. Contact catherinedook@hotmail.com to purchase her books.

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(One year on the cusp of breakup, just after the ice road across the Mackenzie was closed, Dad gunned his truck across the river in reverse, water spraying in all directions, because he said he had better traction in reverse. He did not bring groceries with him.)

The two grocery stores had an ironclad excuse for price hikes. When the Merv Hardie Ferry was finally commissioned, Tib Hardie christened it wearing a flowered polyester pantsuit identical to one I owned that my mother had bought for me from the Hudson’s Bay Company.

My mother had forgiven the HBC for their seasonal price-hikes – sort of. Besides, in Yellowknife in 1970, there wasn’t much clothing choice either.

May 13 10:00am - 5:00pm th May 14 10:00am - 4:00pm th

@ Yellowknife Multiplex $5/person or $20/family

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#YKCTradeshow April/May 2017

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Is Your Website History?

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PAST BLAST

2

TICKETS TO PARADISE

Photo: Ted Grant. NWT Archives, Northwest Territories. Department of Information fonds, accession number G-1979-023, item number 0270.

THE SUMMER OF â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;67 was a milestone year for Canadian confederation, but these

two seem content to avoid the centennial parties and just chill in this gravel parking lot with its scrubby flower beds. The train of trailers behind them forms the Frontier Inn, also known as the blue motel. According to the NWT Archives, the motel is on Franklin Avenue, maybe where today's Arnica Inn is located.

If you can confirm where it was, or better yet, ever stayed there, drop a line to editor@edgeyk.ca.

April/May 2017

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EDGEYK EVENTS

Our events calendar at EDGENORTH.CA is your place to figure out what’s happening any day of the week.

Just visit EDGENORTH.CA and click on EVENTS to add your own event for FREE!

_APRIL-MAY

_MAY 6

PTARMIGAN PTHEATRICS PRESENTS THE SOUND OF MUSIC Northern Arts and Cultural Centre April 27-30, May 4-6 The Hit Broadway Musical and Movie is coming to Yellowknife! For tickets and times visit naccnt.ca/events.

YK UNITED CHURCH ANNUAL GARAGE SALE 8:30 - 11:00 am Northern United Place 54 Street, Yellowknife Annual Garage Sale at Northern United Place. Indoor event, weather doesn’t matter!

yellowknife.ca

_APRIL 29 _APRIL 12 EASTER SKATE 6:30 - 7:15 pm Shorty Brown Arena Free admission.

_APRIL 12-13 SOUNDS LIKE CANADA 7:30 pm Northern Arts and Cultural Centre Fireweed Children’s Choir, Ursa Miners and Aurora Chorealis perform “Sounds Like Canada” a mosaic of music spanning the country and celebrating the diversity within Canadian choral music. Tickets: $28

_APRIL 14-17 EASTER TRAIL Come down to the McMahon Frame Lake Trail over Easter weekend to see all the bunnies and eggs that have moved in.

_APRIL 19 NATIONAL FILM DAY: ANNE OF GREEN GABLES 1:45 - 5 pm Yellowknife Public Library Yellowknife Public Library presents a classic in Canadian film: Anne of Green Gables.

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GUMBOOT RALLY 2017 YK1 Parking Lot The Gumboot Rally raises money for the Yellowknife Association for Community Living. Contests, live music, magic shows and a BBQ. To register a 5-person team, contact: info@ykacl.ca, (867) 920-2644

_APRIL 30 DAY OF THE MS WALK 10 am - 1:30 pm Mildred Hall School A fundraising event with 1 km and 5 km walks, hot lunch and live entertainment.

To register: www.mswalks.ca

_APRIL 30 MUSIC AT THE MUSEUM 3 - 4 pm A free concert of mostly classical music, presented by Classics On Stage Yellowknife (COSY) at the Museum Café from 3 - 4 pm on the last Sunday of each month. cosyyellowknife.com

_MAY 4 PARENTS OF YELLOWKNIFE GROUP (POY) DISCUSS SELF-CARE 6:30 - 8 pm Abe Miller Building 4912 53rd St. Being a parent is not easy. You will learn what self-care consists of and how it is different for every person.

_MAY 13 CONFESSIONS OF A FAIRY'S DAUGHTER 7:30 pm Northern Arts and Cultural Centre A comic monologue based on her bestselling memoir, Alison Wearing’s Confessions of a Fairy’s Daughter tells the story of growing up with a gay father in the 1980s. Tickets: $35

_MAY 16 YELLOWKNIFE MUSIC FESTIVAL SHOWCASE CONCERT 7 pm Northern Arts and Cultural Centre Classical music performances by students and teachers. Admission: By Donation

_MAY 23 HUGO LAPORTE 7:30 pm Northern Arts and Cultural Centre Nominated as CBC’s “30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30” in 2015, Hugo Laporte has a rich voice and an exceptional sense of interpretation.

Tickets: $35

_MAY 27 INDOOR GARAGE SALE 8 - 11:30 am Multiplex Come out for Yellowknife’s biggest garage sale under one roof where more than 100 tables of treasure await you!

HUB INTERNATIONAL INSURANCE BROKERS 7th ANNUAL CHARITY GOLF TOURNAMENT

Friday June 2nd, 2017

Thanks to our sponsors, we’ve raised over $240,000 for Northern Charities in the last 6 years.

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Registration $125 per person and includes golf, dinner, wine, auction, door prizes and live entertainment

MANY FUN HOLE IN ONE CONTESTS To book a tee-time or for more information, call Larry at 403-589-2161 or email at larry.jacquard@hubinternational.com

ALL PROCEEDS THIS YEAR WILL GO TO THE FOSTER FAMILY COALITION OF THE NWT INITIATIVE; CAMP CONNECTIONS.

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Photography

Gum disease. Root cavities and infections. Oral cancer. Most people never see them coming.

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GET THE FULL STORY ON YOUR ORAL HEALTH. SEE YOUR DENTIST.

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