Labrador –  2018

August 11. We left “black fly haven” after nursing our wounds from the day before, and headed west, to undertake a 7 hour, 392 kilometer pull through trackless, uninhabited Black Spruce forest, hauling a “Little Guy” teardrop camper with “We Did Not Vote for Donald Trump” proudly posted on its rear end. We got lots of “thumbs up”, smiles and enquiries on that little statement. No wonder, considering the insults Trump recently hurled at Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. I am not one generally who would make political statements on the back of a camper, but enough is enough. Fast forward to today, this very day, January 14, 2021, the day after Donald Trump became the first president in American history to be impeached for a second time, I think we were on to something in 2018.

Our Little Guy is barely big enough to accommodate us and one enthusiastic little dog, but at least it provided a place to sleep away from the black fly onslaught. Tent camping would have been death by bite.

We traveled over dirt and gravel roads through a land of a whole lot of nothing, with the 4,131 square mile, Akami – Uapishk – KakKasuak – Mealy Mountains National Park Reserve, a roadless expanse of mountain tundra, marine coasts, boreal forests, islands and rivers, home to the Innu, the Inuit, and a few crazy Europeans through countless ages, just to the north.

We arrive in Happy Valley – Goose Bay (population 8,109), an actual town, the largest town in this remote region and home to the largest military air base in northeastern North America, which probably explains all the people living here. Ironic that this place is called Happy Valley since the average winter temperature hovers somewhere around a balmy 0 F°. Those conditions seem only to heighten the cheerful nature of the people who inhabit this vast country.

We find our way to Gosling Park, an abandoned city campground with many empty campsites. Home sweet home.

The next morning a fellow camper reported to us that a momma black bear and her cub had driven him out of his tent. Momma black bears get a little testy with humans around their cubs, so we skedaddled into town to have our Dodge Grand Caravan serviced, take Sawyer to a vet for black fly bite treatment and buy fly netting, a must in this region.

On to North West River we traveled (population 650) where we hit the jackpot and found the Labrador Interpretation Center, an exceptionally fine museum indeed, one that features the history of the founding peoples of Labrador—Innu, Inuit, Métis, and Settlers. The museum’s many fine exhibits speaks to ancient indigenous history and how indigenous people are living their lives in these parts today. The exhibits combine indigenous voices, art, and artifacts from each of the indigenous cultures, presented in Inuktitut, Innu-aimun and English.

Works like those of native Canadian Gilbert Hay, one of Canada’s leading Inuit carvers, adorn the museum. Hay was born and raised on Labrador’s North Shore, in Nunainguk or the English version, Nain (population 1,424), the northernmost permanent settlement in Labrador, accessible only by air or sea. Moravian missionaries established a mission there in 1771, to save the poor indigenous people from themselves. Imagine what it must have been like living in this region in 1771, with no L.L. Bean, REI, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Starbucks, or McDonalds.

In his 20s, Hay left Nunainguk to seek employment and adventure in western Canada. He returned home later to pursue a life akin to that of his hunter-gatherer ancestors and carry on what became a 40 year career as a wood and stone carver, not an uncommon talent in the Inuit community. Long, frigid artic nights spent hunkered down in igloos without internet, is conducive to this kind of artistic expression.

One of Gilbert’s many works is displayed prominently in the Interpreting Center, a stunning black piece of black Serpentine found near Hopedale entitled “Taqqavut – Our Shadows”. It must weigh a ton.

Take a look at this magnificent man.

“I have two different types of work: my own and what I can make a living on, the stereotypical Inuit art. I feel torn between these two worlds.”

Gilbert Hay 1991

Works like those of accomplished photographer Jennie Williams, also an indigenous person, and also residing in Nunainguk are featured as well. Williams captures everyday North Shore activities and people. Her photographs illustrate the love she has for her community and communicates a deep sense of care for each subject and scene.

Here is a sample of her work in an exhibit entitled “A Way of Life” Innosingit.

“I enjoy capturing wonderful and priceless moments in time, something that can be looked back on for many years to come. A memory that can last forever and ever.”

Jennie Williams, 2016

The visitor to the Labrador Interpretation Center will find other wonderful indigenous archeological, cultural and artistic exhibits that describe past and present indigenous peoples.

One more example.

Indigenous peoples culture IS Labrador’s culture, as it is in much of Canada.

People like Mark Ferguson, the Manager of Collections & Exhibitions for The Rooms Corporation, Provincial Museum Division, who provided information to me recently about Gilbert Hay, along with others, are doing a very fine job of bringing to light that culture, both past and present. Mark’s group manages other museums in Canada. Learn more here;

https://www.therooms.ca/

There are a number of villages scattered along what is know as Labrador’s North Shore, a vast area of settlements and fishing camps occupied by semi-nomadic indigenous peoples who subsist on the largess of the sea, an occupation harder today than ever, because of a myriad of complex factors, including the decline in fish and marine and terrestrial mammal populations.

These remote stations are spread out all along Labrador and Quebec’s North Shore, wrapping around the horn, the thumb of a great peninsula, from Nain, on the eastern side facing the Labrador Sea, to Inukjuak, on the western side, on Hudson Bay. A vast roadless area of artic tundra, wizards, shaman, and for sure plain good hearted people.

I sure would like to visit some of them. Every indigenous person we met have smiles on their faces and in their hearts and pleasant dispositions. And, believe me, no one is in a hurry in North West River. There is ferry service to Nain and other points further north. Maybe someday I will make that trip.

But for now, we mush on. Tomorrow we travel ever westward, towards Churchill Falls.

As every person in Labrador says at the end of a conservation, “Cheers.”  Or as some indigenous people say at the end of practically every sentence,

“that’s good, my dear”, or “That’s good, me ol’ dear.”

So I say to you, “That’s good, me ol’ dear and

Tavvauvusi (Goodbye to All)

Inuktitut (An Indigenous Language)