Igloolik

It just explodes out the more you look into it.

I found with connecting with my aunt here and talking to them, I'm like, "I'm doing this kinship terminology thing, and we're filling out family trees." But then they also told me, like, "Well, there's this Treabold document," which is there's this Father Treabold, I think Anglican minister in the 1950s in Igloolik, who started to make family trees and take documents of everyone in the community and all their relations that they could remember.

And so they had this, and they shared it with me.

And I was like, "This is amazing, being able...

I can see going back, like, you know, five or six generations of, uh, my Inuit side of the family." And so I shared that with the rest of the cohort of students, right? 'Cause we may, uh, have ties going back to Igloolik.

And sure enough, we found out we did, and that, like, three of us were related to one another and that we're all part of this kinda same family tree, all descended.

And, like, we didn't know it at the time until we were all, like, uh, presenting to the rest of the class.

Um, and it's just really nice to work there where you're just surrounded in it all day.

I'm Ali Hassan, and you're in the middle of Tom's conversation with Zora Caunac.

Zora was born in Igloolik and grew up in Ottawa.

For many years, she worked as a youth mentor, helping young Inuit students think about their futures.

And then, in her late 30s, she had this realization: Maybe she should take some of her own advice.

I feel shame and, um, well, just, like, guilt for just imagining all the people that didn't make, didn't jump through those hoops that they needed to, to get to where they are because of things they, that are out of their control, and it's just constantly happening like that.

Um, it's a, it's complicated because it's privilege, but it's also, like, ac- like, there's privilege in, like, white privilege, but there's also privilege in access to your own culture and learning and language.

And, um, there's so many people who grew up in Igloolik or small communities with people speaking the language around them, but they don't learn it for some reason.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

During a five hundred foot portage across a narrow promontory, we briefly set foot on mainland North America.

A few crossings later, we reached the bustling town of Igloolik.

Shortly after arriving, we did machine laundry for the first time since passing through Pangnirtung eleven weeks ago.

A wonderful event.