A visit to Ulukhaktok

"Say that again?"

"U-lu-khak-tok."

Less than 72 hours after I first landed in Inuvik, NWT, I'm on Aklak Air's Beechcraft King Air 100 on route to Ulukhaktok, also known as "Holman," a small Inuvialuit community on the West coast of Victoria Island. This is  part of my orientation with outgoing dietitian Diana Trang, who has been in the position 2 years. While this is first of many trips I will make in my year in the NWT, it is also likely the last of the season, as travel to communities is best done in the winter months. Warmer weather means that locals are "out on the land" and communities serviced by ice roads, such as Tuktoyaktuk and Aklavik, only become accessible by air or water. Today, we step off the plane to find the air calm and the skies sunny. "Oh, it's warm," says Diana, basking in the sunshine as we trudge from the plane to the tiny airport building. It's spring equinox and it's -20 degrees Celcius - I guess I have some aclimatizing to do.

We can't believe our luck. There's a group from Ottawa in town tonight, and the community is having a big feast at the school gymnasium. After a bit of work and a quick walk around the community, Diana and I join in. There's lots of food on two long rows of tables, running the length of the room, and people are already digging in. Oh - a treat - frozen rheindeer meat. (Rudolph doesn't taste too bad - it's sort of like sushi.) After we've grubbed up, it's time for some games. We see some young men demonstrate the Alaska high kick, the knuckle hop (ouch!) and the musk-ox wrestle. We also see demonstrations of print making, seal skin mitt sewing, and fish filtetting using the "ulu," the local women's cooper knife after which the community is named. Next, the locals display the beautiful crafts they've selling: mukluks, mitts, and prints, and it's a frenzy - the Ottawaiians are having a hayday. Finally, we are treated to "drum dancing" and "jigging," two regional specialties. What a night!

We spend a few days in Ulukhaktok, and I get a feel for the two small grocery stores in town: a "Northmart" and a "Co-op." Of course things aren't cheap, but thanks to "Nutrition North," a federal program that subsizes the cost of healthy foods in fly-in communities, some food costs are not as high as I would expect. In fact, a bottle of olive oil is cheaper here than in Inuvik. Other things, like accommodation and transportation, however, are very expensive. A night at the 8-room hotel will cost you $225 per person for a shared room. Yowza! The five minute taxi ride to the airport? $15 per person, one way. These are just a few of the little things I am noting, and I am quickly realizing that visiting these Arctic communities as a tourist would be an expensive proposition indeed. Life's not cheap up here.

We walk up a hill south of the community to take in a view of the frozen Beaufort Sea and the community, and while the light lingers long into the evening already, we don't stay out too long for the cold. We walk back to the hotel, pass a team of dogs chained on the ice, and hear the snowmobiles cruising through the hamlet. Our room is too hot again - that seems to be the norm around here - too cold outside, too hot inside. We wake up dehydrated and enjoy our last few sunny hours in Ulukhaktok. Familys in colourful parkas and seal skin mukluks cruise by on their snowmobiles as they pick-up their kids at lunchtime, and we are off to the airport. Bye-bye Ulukhaktok - thanks for the warm welcome!

I inadvertently chose a seat on the plane right next to a heater. I sweat the entire 2-hours back to Inuvik.