Face of Nation : Sitting on a bed next to one of the oldest Inuit women in northern Nunavut, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau heard and witnessed first-hand what life is like for the people of the Far North.
Trudeau visited Arctic Bay Thursday as part of a two-day visit to the territory. His first stop in the tiny northern community of fewer than 900 residents was a visit to the home of Qaapik Attagutsiak, who turns 100 next year. He arrived bearing a gift basket of fresh fruit. Her house is a makeshift structure of unpainted wooden planks and plastic, insulated on the inside with curved walls. It is so small, Trudeau could not stand inside and had to crouch through the half-sized door to greet the elder.
She has chosen to live in this humble abode because she does not want to live anywhere that has belonged to or has been made by anyone else, a local explained. She helped build this structure and her children’s homes now surround it. Inside, her walls are lined with shelves filled with trinkets and collectibles — dolls and figurines and many tiny teapots. Some trinkets she collected herself, others were gifts.
Her conversation with the prime minister was casual. She spoke in her native tongue through a translator, recounting the days of raising her many children in the community, pointing to a black and white photo of herself in her younger days with one of her babies on her lap.
Some of those days have been happy, while others have been very difficult, she said. She was wistful about the time when more of their traditional country food of caribou and seal was brought into the community — back in the days when their catches were more plentiful. Trudeau replied by mentioning an announcement he’d made earlier in the day about the creation of a new marine protected area to help with conservation efforts. Attagutsiak seemed pleased, but didn’t want to get into politics.
