Gallant's Lounge

Sorry for my dreadful consistency, I got a bit distracted. But let me try to briefly condense what happened over the last few days in Kuujjuaraapik.

It was basically a tornado of work mixed with some very late nights partying with our friends. Never a good mix, but was quite thrilling. We are far from completing our job in that town, meaning that we need to come back. Yet, that has proven to be a difficult task considering that the hotel is pretty much booked for the foreseeable future. Were trying options, but now that we are out of town, chances are against us.

In terms of my leads that I found in Kuujjuaraapik, they will need a tremendous amount of work. I might even need to come back just to follow through with them. Who knows.

The main one that I will try to follow-up on is the landslide. It has definitely had an impact on the community and the environment surrounding the town. I will try to reach out to people for interviews and get a professional on the matter as well.

We were able to go on the Cree side for the last two days in town. Whapmagoostui was definitely different in shape, size and looks. I did not get the chance to speak to a lot of people as there was a prominent camping gathering that emptied most of the town.

Now, lets talk about the new town, Umiujaq.

Umiujaq

Upon arrival, everything was different. The town is 160 km north of Kuujjuaraapik, yet the social dynamic couldn’t be more different.

One could describe Kuujjuaraapik as a thrilling and eventful town. People are out and about, they are busy yet jovial and down to party. Umiujaq on the other hand is a calm, reserved and serene town. People have been welcoming, however, the children have been very conversational with us, always bringing some great laughs. The streets are peaceful, not too much action there. Partying until the break of dawn and working 60 hours a week has definitely taken its toll on me, meaning that I will have a week of rest out here. But, obviously those are merely my first impressions, I could be proven completely wrong…

This town is populated by mostly Inuit, meaning that there are no delimitations of territory between Cree and Inuit like in Kuujjuaraapik. This will provide a comparison of what it is like to have a community ran only by Inuit. This should be investigated further.

The creation of Umiujaq is also an interesting story. Through some talking with people , I was told that Umiujaq is a result of Kuujjuaraapik getting split. The reason for the splitting was that Hydro-Quebec planned on damming the Great Whale River, the river next to town. This scared quite a lot of people as this would mean massive flooding and a complete rearrangement of the environment. So, a part of the community split off and went north to establish Umiujaq in 1986. This could be an interesting historical story to do, and I should definitely follow up on that.

We had a great conversation with the mayor as well, Mr. Jack Niviaxie. However, in our conversation, he told us something that caught my attention. I overheard this in Kuujjuaraapik also, but now that a political official told me about it, it seems very worrying.

He told us that a prisoner was mandated to stay in town, and that they were not warned about it. He also hinted at the fact that it seems to be a common practice. He conveyed to us his worries about the safety of his community, and rightfully so. If judicial officials don’t even have the decency to warn communities about criminals coming to their town, this should be exposed. Even the practice of sending prisoners in isolated communities seems dubious at best. Why is it even happening? This is most certainly something I should follow up on, and I need to know if this is a practice that applies only to Umiujaq , or to other communities in Nunavik. If anyone reading knows anything about this, please let me know.

The Land

In terms of landscape, there is definitely a difference here. It is significantly rockier out here, hardly any trees, and no sand. I didn’t say much about the sand in Kuujjuaraapik, but it was definitely a hassle to walk or drive through. There is also a National Park nearby, which would be a crime not to go visit.

Well, between the time I wrote that last part and now, I have hiked the hills of the National Park. What a sight that was.

Let’s put my Geography studies to use here. The hills here are very uniquely shaped because we are on the edges of the Canadian shield. Now, what is a shield exactly? It is an initial shape that forms a continent. Once upon a time, this shield was connected with all other shields on Earth. But now, it is part of America, and the continent grew because of other oceanic rock formations that gradually stuck with the initial formation.

The rocks that you see in these pictures have been unaltered for billions of years. But, if you live in Quebec, that is not such a rare sight as a majority of the province is part of the shield. The uniqueness of the landscape is the fact that we are beyond the tundra forests, which is the last biome that holds large forests. This means that a majority of the rock formations are laid bare.

Another thing to look out for out here are large valleys cutting through mountains. Now, some of them might be due to erosion, but out here, glaciers are usually the culprits. These things were unimaginably massive back in the ice age, so their weight would be enough to crush what is underneath them and when they moved, not much could resist their destruction. The landscape in Northern Quebec was scarred by these glaciers, and that created some pretty beautiful sights

This is it for now. Since there might be a lot less action in the coming days, I will try to keep up with the blog.

See you soon.