Igloolik, Home of Artcirq, the Inuit Circus

November 01, 2009 | Pulitzer Center

Flying over Nunavut, (translated as 'our land' in Inuktitut), the least populated and geographically largest of Canada's provinces and territories. Nunavut was officially separated from the Northwest Territories only ten years ago. It is roughly the size of western Europe and its 26 communities are accessible only by air or sealift.

Arriving in Igloolik, a tiny island community of about 2,000 people off the eastern coast of Melville Peninsula in Nunavut.

Igloolik, like all communities in Nunavut, is caught in a jarring transition from a traditional nomadic life to a modern world. In the 1950s and '60s, the Canadian government relocated the Inuit to newly created settlements. Inuit way of life has changed dramatically as a result. Until recently, Inuit society had a low rate of death by suicide. The transition from traditional way of life has coincided with a transition from a low-suicide society to a high-suicide society in a short time period.

Roughly 60 percent of Inuit people in Nunavut are under 24 years old; unofficial estimates say about one-third of the Inuit in Nunavut are under 15 years of age.

Students run home for lunch from Ataguttaaluk High School. With about 250 students registered at the school, only about half of them show up on an average day. Three years ago a student hung herself in the girls' bathroom with the headphone cord of her MP3 player.

Reena Qulittalik sits with her mother and Inuit elders making sealskin mittens. Reena is one of the performers in Artcirq, the Inuit circus started in Igloolik to provide more possibilities for youth here.

Guillaume Saladin takes his sealskin mittens from the freezer where they are preserved, before going hunting. Saladin is the director and a founder of Artcirq who now lives year-round in Igloolik. He has deep roots here having spent summers here as a young boy with his anthropologist father.

Saladin visits with some of the youngest members of Artcirq at Igloolik's annual Halloween party.

Six of Artcirq's members will represent Nunavut at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver in February as part of an ensemble of Inuit performers. They are watching a video of their rehearsal deciding on changes and improvements to their performance.

Artcirq doesn't have a permanant place to practice, and has recently moved practice from the community pool to an unheated room in the ice rink's building.

Artcirq has about a dozen members, skilled and enthusiastic young performers who do everything from acrobatics, juggling and aerial routines to incorporating traditional Inuit arts like juggling, drum dancing and throat singing into their performances.

The only costume of the group is a polar bear made from the actual hide of one that Guillaume killed on a hunting trip when it barrelled into his tent.

Artcirq performed in Ottawa in June for the Aboriginal Arts Festival. The show, called 'Oatiaroi' ('Wait') was a unique blend of circus arts, theatre, music and Inuit stories and culture.

Artcirq performed in Ottawa in June for the Aboriginal Arts Festival. The show, called 'Oatiaroi' ('Wait') was a unique blend of circus arts, theatre, music and Inuit stories and culture.

Artcirq performed in Ottawa in June for the Aboriginal Arts Festival. The show, called 'Oatiaroi' ('Wait') was a unique blend of circus arts, theatre, music and Inuit stories and culture.

Long after the performance was finished, one young fan waited for another glimpse of the awe-inspiring performers. In Saladin's Igloolik home, a child's school worksheet called 'My Role Model' is tacked to the wall. It reads 'My role model is Guillume. I think they are a good role model because He is nice. He got so many people to make cerkisse. When I grow up I want to be like Guilume.'

Back on the 'road,' the half-dozen Artcirq performers who will take part in the Olympics leave for Iqaluit, Nunavut's captial, where one of the few rehearsals with the entire Inuit ensemble will take place. Artcirq has performed in Timbuktu, Paris, Mexico as well as southern Canada.

Stone markers stand in the moonlight on the road home from the airport in Igloolik. Inuksuit (singular Inukshuk or the Inuit-preferred spelling Inuksuk) have become a familiar symbol to non-Inuit, representing the high North. (The stone marker similar to a human figure often called an inukshuk, is actually called an Inunnguaq by the Inuit.) Inuksuit have different meanings, and may symbolize survival, good hunting areas as well as being landmarkers.

The tiny Inuit community of Igloolik sits 200 miles above the Arctic Circle in Nunavut, Canada's newest territory formed in 1999 as the result of a land claims settlement. Igloolik is home to only 2,000 people, many of whom still live in a traditional way, hunting seal and caribou and hand-stitching animal skin clothing. It is stark, tight-knit, and beautiful, but also very poor and deeply troubled, struggling to adjust to the transition from nomadic life just 50 years ago to a modern digital world. With few opportunities for jobs, and a high rate of drinking and drug abuse, young people kill themselves at 12 times the national average. Igloolik is also home to the world's only Arctic circus -- Artcirq, a collective of young jugglers and acrobats who incorporate Inuit traditions in their performances as a way to celebrate their Inuit heritage and bring hope to the community.