Of Hummers and Snares

When I got to work this morning I had the good fortune to meet Mabel English before she headed back to Inuvik. She's the announcer/operator of Nantaii, a daily show broadcast out of Inuvik to the Gwich'in communities of the western Arctic and Old Crow, Yukon. Mabel is retiring from the CBC in November, after five years of hosting the show. She's 70 years old.

That five years has helped her to buy a truck and a cabin in the bush. Now, she wants to spend time with her 20 grandchildren, taking them out on the land, teaching them about their traditions, from the medicinal uses of spruce gum to how to set a snare.

The radio day sounds quite different up here, with several shows broadcast in aboriginal languages. No Jian Ghomeishi; no 'Q'. And the morning show effectively ends at 8 a.m. to make room for 3 news packages in different languages. Those who broadcast out of Yellowknife come to the morning meeting. There's lots of interchange about stories and ideas.

I got a car for the weekend--it's a Ford Focus, that looks like a dinky toy next to all the hummers and humungous pickup trucks on the road. At first, the rental place tried to give me an Escort with a crack right across the windshield.

I went to the Co-op Store to load up on groceries, where I found everything from fiddleheads to frozen Saskatoon berries. Granted, the fiddleheads looked as though they had jet lag. There were also strawberries from California for only $2.99. But they were scary--almost as big as my head. Meanwhile, I hear people at work talking about trying to grow tomatoes, a challenge given the rocky terrain, sparse topsoil and short growing season.