Last week I heard someone describe Inuvik as a "transient town."
That's one way to describe it. It is no secret that many people who live in Inuvik are short-term residents, often coming from southern Canada, or even other countries, to work for a year or two or three and then return home.
This is something that has come up a lot since I moved here in January. Two of the friends that I've made are leaving town because their employment contracts are over in the next six months.
Another new friend asked me how long I was planning to stay, and when I said, "indefinitely," she responded happily, "you're one of us!"
By "one of us," she meant one of the handful of people who move to Inuvik and stay for more than a year or two.
The person who described the town as a transient one was saying that the people who move to Inuvik from other places, whether they are here for one year or 10, must make a real effort to learn about Inuvialuit and Gwich'in culture, history and traditions, especially if they are providing services to the community.
This seems obvious, but I think it bears repeating.
The nature of my job with the paper has allowed me the opportunity to learn about Gwich'in and Inuvialuit cultures and traditions by default, as I attend many community events and talk to lots of local community members each week. I also often do background research on the community for stories, so learning these things has been part of my job in a passive way.
That being said, hearing someone from the community stress the importance for people like me – "transient people" if you will – to learn about local Indigenous cultures was a wake-up call. Yes, I am learning passively, but that is not good enough.
I need to prioritize educating myself, and so do other newcomers to Inuvik.
To start, I went to the Inuvik Centennial Library and picked up a few books. There are hundreds of books about Indigenous cultures, histories and traditions, and there is even more in the online database.
This is just barely scratching the surface, but it's a start.
Last week, I went to a concert at the Igloo Church featuring two Australian artists, Shane Howard and Yirrmal Marika. Howard is Australian of Irish descent, and Marika is an Indigenous Australian artist.
One of the major themes that was present through much of their music and stories was cross-cultural reconciliation and understanding.
In this vein, at one point during the show, Howard said, "we have to build bridges to each other."
One way to do this is to educate yourself, and I encourage all those who have moved here to make sure that they are making every effort to learn about their new (however transient) home.