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As the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic continues to wane, we move closer and closer to pre-pandemic behaviour. This shift allows for the return to travel outside of our community, province, and country for pleasure, and for work. Because of this recent change I have engaged in teaching and training again face to face with students in Nunatsiavut, NL, Canada.
Since 2017 I have been afforded the opportunity to work with the Nunatsiavut Government (Nunatsiavut is an Inuktitut word meaning our beautiful land) in contracted training. Travelling to a remote “fly in” Inuit community along the north coast of Labrador, NL, Canada is “interesting” to use a euphemistic term.
I wrote this piece while on “weather hold”, for the third day, in beautiful Nain, NL. During the time I was stuck, Nain was an icy, rocky, sunny, and warm community. “Weather hold” means that flights cannot safely take off, fly, and/or land, and I took this as an opportunity to pulaak (the Inuktitut word for visit) with friends at their cabin off Akpiksai Bay – traveling the ice trail on skidoo over Davis Inlet to have a boil up (roast hotdogs and marshmallows) while watching the sunset, waiting for the Northern Lights to dance in the sky.
At that time, my social media was filled with friend’s stories of delays returning from trips to Southern countries because of problems with air carriers. I sat in Nain, enjoying the blue sky holding my privilege.
Once the weather cleared, and I left Nain, I had to spend a night in Goose Bay, NL before I could get a flight to my home province, so my delay interfered with meetings I had scheduled. These were easily rescheduled; for the residents of the North Coast of Labrador, “weather hold” means no flights to medical appointments in Goose Bay or St. John’s. These appointments would require rescheduling which could mean that individuals will wait many more months (or years) for needed medical tests or procedures. It means no emergency medical evacuation – leaving the health clinic and nurse practitioners to manage (sometimes) life threatening illnesses. It means no cargo arriving to restock grocery store shelves. It means no family returning from needed travel away. The runway in Nain is less than 2000ft long and does not have lights. That means that the size of the aircraft, and the time-of-day aircraft can land are both limited, add the complexity of weather and the landing and take-off window gets even smaller.
As a Kallunât (Inuktitut for non-Inuit) guest here, I have privilege and responsibility. As a country, Canada cannot move to reconciliation until we have truth. We are all treaty people and as such those of us with privileged voice have a responsibility to amplify circumstance. Weather hold is a regular occurrence in Nain. Before you pass judgment on the location Nunatsiavummuit (the Inuit who live in Nunatsiavut) choose to live, recognize that many of the complexities they encounter are the impact of colonization. For those of us who are descendants of people who invaded Turtle Island1 recognize modernity as an impact of our choices, beliefs, and values and accept that we imposed (often through violence) these values on Indigenous people, and the social problems in Indigenous community are a direct outcome of this colonizing behaviour.
Etuaptmumk is the Mi'kmaw word for Two-Eyed Seeing. Two-eyed seeing is often explained as a way of learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of Western knowledges and ways of knowing then learning to use both these eyes together, for the benefit of all.
Living on traditional land should afford the opportunity to be on the land in traditional ways while accessing the benefits of modern convenience (as one chooses). It should not mean marginalization and continued oppression. Boil water orders (a violation of basic human rights) and lack of access to services should not be seen consequentially for choosing to live on traditional land. Rather, our colonial government who benefits from the wealth of the natural resources (a colonial construct) they take, has a responsibility to provide equitably for all the citizens of this country, settlers and Indigenous alike. And it is our responsibility as descendants of colonial invaders to hold our elected officials accountable.
[1] Turtle Island is the name used to refer to North America and stems from creation stories in many Algonquians and Iroquoian-speaking people’s tradition; including the Mi'kmaq language which is part of the Algonquian language family.
