The Arctic Post

Life Adventures in the Canadian Arctic

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Chester celebrates 30 years!!

This week is Hamlet Days here in Chester. The community celebrated 30 years of being considered a hamlet.  Before that, it was a settlement. Chester is the oldest community in Nunavut. Monday was the fish judging. Yesterday was their big evening of activities. Everything started at 6pm with the lighting of the Qulliq by one of the elders, followed by  speeches from the mayor of Chester, the MLA and Premier of Nunavut. That’s right, Eva Aariak came to Chester for the day. After the speeches there were awards given for Rangers, Long Service awards, etc. Afterward, everyone enjoyed a feast of turkey with the trimmings as well as country food. After everyone ate they judged the cake decorating contest. There were three different cakes that were decorated.  After the cake was cut and eaten they had a couple of contests. The first one was for “newspaper contests”.  4 people made “Amautis” made of newspaper. I have to say that all 4 of the outfits were pretty impressive. While Etienne and I were sitting around watching everything, a lady from town approached us and asked us to judge the contest.  There were 3 prizes and 4 entries….that was probably one of the hardest things I’ve had to judge. They all were so good and it was heartbreaking to have to leave 1 person out.  After the newspaper costumes, they had a traditional dress competition. We didn’t have to judge that one. Afterward there was supposed to be square dancing but we were tired and didn’t stay that late. They are having dances every night this week, so I’m hoping to head over again to watch.

Lighting of the Qulliq while two teens did some throat singing

The MLA and the Premier

In the usual order: Mayor of Chester, Premier, unknown guy and MLA with an Elder giving a speech

The cakes that were judged

Another of the cakes

Newspaper contest

Traditional Dress

This little guy was so cute in his caribou suit!!!


This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 at 21:29 and is filed under The Experience. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

8 Responses to “Chester celebrates 30 years!!”

  1. May 26th, 2010 at 21:41

    Tera says:

    Those newspaper outfits are neat!! Too cute of the little guy in the caribou suit!!! Seems like a busy month for you guys in the community!! that’s awesome!! Good catch on the fish!

  2. May 27th, 2010 at 09:56

    Pat says:

    I love the traditional dress. It’s not what I would have expected. There are a number of aspects similar to the traditional dress of the Amerindians. The little boy is really cute but he must be soooooo hot inside dressed like that. So which 3 won the newspaper contest?

  3. May 27th, 2010 at 10:40

    Mom says:

    My hear broke when you said that you had to leave once outfit out once you had judged, that must have been hard. They did all look great. Wow if things keep this busy it will seem like time to come home again really quick.

  4. May 27th, 2010 at 11:41

    Darlene says:

    I just love the traditional dress outfits, they are absolutely beautiful. If only we could hear the throat singing, I think it is an amazing sound. Carly you will have to take lessons so you can show us how it’s done when you come back south. LOL

  5. May 28th, 2010 at 19:58

    morena says:

    That kid in the caribou suit is adorable!! The traditional dress is beautiful as well.

  6. May 30th, 2010 at 09:33

    Tara says:

    Maybe you should submit the newspaper theme to project runway. Very creative.

  7. June 1st, 2010 at 21:24

    Ana says:

    Great shots!

  8. June 2nd, 2010 at 18:07

    Michael says:

    I missed ALL the good stuff!

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