Barney Tootoo had a lot to look back upon as he blew out the candles to celebrate his 76th birthday on May 14.
Tootoo has lived in three different Kivalliq communities during his life: Baker Lake, Rankin Inlet and Whale Cove. And, with the obvious creation of Nunavut as its own territory, he’s seen a lot of change in three-quarters of a century.
He said the biggest change he’s seen in Rankin Inlet over the years is the different nationalities of people who are moving to the community and staying longer.
He said for many years, people would just come into Rankin to work for the summer and then they were gone.
“We have people from all over living here now full time and that’s been good to see,” said Tootoo.
“Rankin Inlet is the type of town where people get along with each other, no matter what race or nationality they are.”
Tootoo said there’s been, of course, many changes in lifestyle over the years.
He said some changes make him smile when he thinks back to the way things used to be years ago.
“Years ago, we never really used to go by time. Today you have to bide your time with everything you’re doing. In years past, you’d just take your time with something and, if you didn’t finish it today, you always had tomorrow to finish it.
“But, nowadays, you have to finish what you’re doing right now because something else is coming up right behind it.
“I don’t really find today’s lifestyle to be all that good for Inuit in some ways. All the technology people brought up here seems to be making things harder for some of the younger kids. I don’t have a cell phone or anything like that, so it doesn’t bother me, but I’ve seen younger kids struggling with it all a bit.”
When it comes to the introduction of alcohol, Tootoo said he’s enjoyed a cold beer since he’s been in his teens and still enjoys having the odd cold one with friends.
He said some Inuit have really struggled with the introduction of alcohol and seem to always go to extremes with it.
“That always going to extremes with it is what makes it hard on everyone, especially when families are affected by it.
“I still enjoy getting the boys together every now and then to have a couple. For me, it’s still a fun thing to do, just to get together and shoot the breeze.
“But, it’s like a lot of things these days when the behavior of some ruin it for everyone. And what I find, is that, often, when something serious happens in Rankin, it’s out-of-towners who go overboard with booze and cause it.”
Tootoo said he sees Nunavut as doing alright so far.
He said overall, the government has done a pretty good job with the territory’s development.
“In some ways we’re trying to keep up with the Joneses and I think we’re doing OK. We’re looking at things like modern power lines, fiber optics and all this modern stuff so who knows — maybe we’ll be where we want to be sooner rather than later and catch up to everyone in the south.
“The older generation isn’t into all this modern stuff, they’d rather it the way it was in the old days, but, if we go back to that, we’ll be left behind and be back in the cave days.
“For me, I still love to go out on the land. That’s my main thing, going out on the land, and I still do it as much as I can. I just spent four days out on the land hunting and sleeping under the stars.
“It’s always different every time you go out and that’s, hopefully, something that will never change. It’s beautiful country out there and you never get tired of it.”