Internet was gone but I was still there!

This is Kimmirut along with the photos to follow. I packed up my personal gear and 400 lbs of lab and clinical supplies and flew to Iqaluit for and over night transfer to Kimmirut. My flight the next morning is on a twin otter which is the largest plane they can handle on the runway in Kimmirut. I will continue the story on the next photo:

The plane was passanger full, with cargo of supplies for Kimmirut. Food supplies are a president of course and therefore my lab cargo stayed behind. Flights to Kimmirut only arrive 3 times weekly and some of those days they have a couple of return flights.

For two and a half days we wait for the supplies to arrive. During this time Soullo, my interpreter calls and lines up patients to be seen each half hour for exams and consultations, but I can’t start any work due to the lack of supplies.

Wednesday afternoon the cargo arrives and the guys from the airport graciously hussle the cargo down to the Medical Centre .

Now the work begins! Patients each half hour with impressions bite and choose teeth. It’s a hustle and feels good. Most patients are partially edentulous, very few with no teeth.

Even though I lost a couple of days of productivity all worked out. A lot of the community at this time of year are busy hunting out at the flow-edge,( where the ice meets the open water) The seals are a very important part of the communities livelihood and food supply.

My time to photograph the area was limited to early morning and evening. A lot of these shots are from 6:30 to 8:00 am. The sun crests the mountain at 7;oo but is light enough to shoot comfortably at 6:00am. Now at the end of April the sun is rising close to the 4:00 am and is coming up fast to the midnight sun.

The northern communities were settled by white man. These communities were part of Canada’s endeavour to establish our place, our stake in northern Canada. These communities were established as RCMP locations. The Eskimos as they were formerly referred to as were relatively nomadic and lived in camps and followed the food, as I understand it.

As supply ships arrived with supplies and trade goods, our northern neighbours would come in from the camps to trade and to unload the ships. Hudson Bay Co. was the main stay of retail and trade at the time.

In the late 50″s The government was providing housing and promoting community living for the natives, and the residential school system.

The names of these communities have now been reverted back from the English names to the Inuit names. Kimmirut was formerly known as Lake Harbour. Kimmirut translated is “The Heal” as the large rock in the previous photo looks like the back end of a heal from certain angles.

An eclectic group of shots and observation.

An eclectic group of shots and observation..

An eclectic group of shots and observation.

Are we closer to the moon here, it looks bigger.

Clear nights for 10 days straight.

Cape Dorset is word renowned for their Inuit Arts. The print makers have a building in which they produce their works which I didn’t get into because of the hours I worked. but the local carvers do their thing at home and out side, often with lights set up and a wee cover.

It’s a dirty dusty job,chipping grinding and filling stone. This polar bear will one day find its way out of here to a gallery and home somewhere in the world.

I climbed the various hills about town to and from work and shot when I could.

My photo sensitive glasses go almost black on days like this, very little contrast in the scenes except some exposed rocks

Someone going somewhere on the other side of town shot at 200mm.

The thumb nail is so small I can’t see the glacier I am posting. I need bigger thumb nails.

I plan on walking over to the lookout today after I pack up my personal gear in preparations to fly into Iqualuit for the night. It appears in a number of shots but I must stand within it and shoot out.

This is beside the RCMP station, and I have no idea what it is representing as I didn’t get up close and personal with it.

Carting about all my gear in the big parka and pants and boots to reach some of these elevated locations is making me feeling pretty good. The first couple of mornings up the hill to work were killing me. It was -26 those mornings but I think this exercise thing is not so bad!

The roads are well maintained and pushed back all the way to the rocks, I guess in case they get a snow fall like in Clyde River , google that one.

This was out in front of Sam Pudlat school where the dental office is. The tachers and kids don’t seem to be offended by the smell of monomer. Bonus because it still affords me!

We are looking over cenral downtown and east Cape Dorset from one of the local high hills that protect the core from the westerly winds.

Heading into downtown.

A panoramic from what I call communication hill where the satellite transmissions and telephones function from.

David offered to walk with me to the edge of the island to the sea where the town park is. part way there is the fuel storage tanks and lots of containers that the ships have brought in. He found a small piece of lumber and was happy to take it home , said he would carve it.

Messing around out on the bay late one night, I think the tide was coming in a as you could hear the cracking and ice movement. I kept looking about for a polar bear but I think that I was just being a little paranoid.

These humans form at the shore during the freeze up with the tidal shifts they are present all around the shore and one needs a relatively clear path to get onto the bay.

The moon roes as the sun set, beautiful evening. I think I lost a lens cap. Poo.

A walk about town

Facing North East

Cape Dorset Suits from communication hill

The high school

Central neighbourhood

The waterfront on the bay

waterfront sunset

A waterfront home

Waiting for the thaw, and that begins in mid to late June, but day time temperatures in the minus teens indicates spring. It was a balmy -17c today.

Lots of these hunting canoes. Mentioned in an earlier shot that someone forgot to put their boat away , but that is not the case. These canoes are put on sleighs and towed out to the flow-age, which is where the ice meets the open sea water. There the canoes are launched and the hunt of seals, walrus and even polar bears begins if the hunter got a tag for bear.

Now this is a sure sign of spring boat cleaning.

There is really not a lot of snow but the winds can whip it up pretty good. Travel on foot is good because the snow is for the most part very hard packed, and the crunching hollow sound under foot is very unique, like I have never heard at home.

Although the bay is frozen, one can still tell when the tide is shifting, as the ice moans and groans as the water fluctuates underneath. The ice is 4-6 feet thick on the fresh water lakes where they ice fish , not so sure about the salt water.

Ok, salt water oceans depending on its salinity which usually is about 3.5% which equals 35 grams of salt per litre of water. This will freeze at -2c or 28F. I often wondered that, but never had a reason to look it up.

A look across the bay, well it looks like a bay but that is another Island. Cape Dorset is on Dorset Island and is the only settlement here.

The moon came up as the sun was setting and this was about 7:30 – 8:00

This is the North west neighbourhood at he top of the bay and where the beach is. It is very hard to picture this place in the summer. Here there is virtually no growth. People will visit family in Kimmirut
to go blueberry picking. My assistant and family went by canoe last summer and it took two days , the trip back was six days due to high seas and had to camp out and wait out the weather.

These hare the Canoes of the North, unless home made they are from the same company.

Another shot from roughly the same area

Cape dorset has about 5 neighbourhoods, this is the North west, the road eventually leads to the lake where the towns drinking water is piped in from.

He looks more cuddly here!

This is one strange looking husky, crossed with an African wild dog.

Kid wanted to try on my magnifiers, then another and another and…..

At work

THe counter on the right looks nice , but when I left tonight in the middle of flasking dentures , it doesn’t now.

Operatory and lab all in one, asepsis is and on going challange to say the least

This is for you grade 2-3 er’s at St Martins that are following.

As requested artwork of the Inuit children.

This is the outside of the hotel I will shoot my suit and share that another day.

He is a happy man and I as well to have met him!

This is Moog, one of the local artists. He is one of many that phone the dental office and ask for me by name,Lucy says its a local call for you and we know it is a soliciting artist. Some bang on the back door as they know thats how the patients get entry when the school is closed and of course after hours I go and find another artist. I would be broke if I purchased from all of them. This is the norm when they know the denturist or dentist is in town.

This is Titotuk , and was good enough to let me do a before and after shot. This is before where he exhibits an acquired class3 occlusion. He is happy for the warmer weather and is going ice fishing this weekend coming. When the fish start staging just before the ice goes out in June , everybody in town is out all night long for the best bite time. Ice fishing is done through the dead of winter but by only a few, where they drill two holes 50-75 feet apart and send a crawler down one hole to the other with a line wich will be pulled up and drag a net in the water connecting the two holes. I don’t know how the crawler works or what it looks like, but I hope to get to those questions and answers yet.

From Sam Pudlat school to the North West

This is near the top end if the inlet where the cargo and tourists ships enter in July August and September but the snow starts again in Sept. Oh I guess someone forgot to put there boat away last year.

Carolee mentioned the expense of everything up here being quite high, and most every thing is. Except if you compare stone carvings here verses and where else in the world. Cape Dorset is internationally know for it’s carvers. They produce here in Cape Dorset more Inuit Art than any where else. This is why they have the nicest hotel in the north, for the dignitaries and collectors of stone carvings and prints. I bought this dancing bear on my way back to my room last evening from Samanie Shaa. We stopped chatted and he sold me the bear! They say pennies on the dollar compared to the southeern galleries.

A shot of the lookout which would look south east to the ocean.

Long day at work

A friendly fac eon my walk to work. One of the team dogs. They are curled up in the morning but are moving about in the evening on my way back to the hotel.

I couldn’t resist on my first night the special was caribou tenderloin with a mushroom gravy. I am glad I took advantage of it as I have worked late since and haven’t been back. Wouldn’t mind a seal meal before I leave!

From Sam Pudlat school to St Martins school

This a map is part of Canada the two pins represent Peterborough and Cape Dorset. Yikes who knew Quebec went all that way north.

All children learn and know both language’s reading and writing both . This is my clinic door.

A typical class room that you would see anywhere else in Canada.

Art and history are prominent through out the school

Shoes are or boots are taken off before entering the school and indoor shoes only are allowed, and that goes for me too.

Some parts of the school need a bit of maintenance. The out side takes a lot of harsh weather like we never see, but the inside is is immaculate.

It was warmer today but two days ago it was -28 and the young kids such as your selves came out had recess go home for lunch and back again. No worries, Dress warm and carry on.

Check out the name and they have a website you can go to.

This is for my buddies at St Martins in Ennismore and Mrs. Loundsbury and the Peach of course and her little mates. This is the school in which I am working from in a small dental office.

The reason why this is the nicest hotel in all of U=Nunivut is because Cape Dorset is world renown for its carvers of stone. The carvers here are the best of the north and sell their art internationally and collectors from around the world come and stay to meet a see the artists at work and order commissioned pieces.

This is the hotel where I am staying. It is in two parts, and I am in the building in the fore ground and the part behind has rooms and a restaurant where I had a caribou dinner on my night of arrival. It is the nicest hotel in all of Nunavut .

As requested by you St Martians or St Martinites,(just Kidding) I took a shot of these huskies for you they staying warm curled up.They are on a chain and are separated from contact from each other so they don’t fight and nobody gets hurt. They live out side all year and are fed seal meat. I haven’t been by dureing the feeding but I have seen the ravens bouncing about getting the scraps. Ravens are like our crow bit half the size bigger with a gentle voice.

The papuse grandmother again. Some one check that spelling, it likely isn’t right.

I am amazed by this. Only because it is so foreign to me. There are two skins drying on racks in town that I know of and they were a danger to the children and adults. It is the way.

This woman and I walked a short distance together toward down town , she had an infant on her back in a papuse.

A small showing of northern lights on the 26th of March

Part of town when I got home from work from the hotel.