I have just returned from a fascinating and exhausting week in Nunavut. I was training a great group of lawyers who are committed to learning how to practice mediation in a way that will be effective in the totally different culture in which they work.
Imagine my surprise– and delight– to see that the Globe and Mail began a series about the promise– and despair– of Nunavut just the day after I returned.
It is a well-written and in-depth look at why those living there are struggling with the nation’s highest rates of youth suicide, hunger, poor health, and depression.
But it also captures rather beautifully the hope that I saw when I was there— and which I hope to see more of when I return in the summer and again in the fall.
Most interesting to me was the story in today’s paper about John Hickes, who runs Nanuq Lodge, where I stayed, with his wife Page. They also have sled-dogs, and he reassured me from the back of the sled I was in, pulled by 10 huskies, across the cracking sea-ice, that we would not get lost in the dense ice-fog that descended all around us. And that we would not likely get eaten by a polar bear.
He was also the guy that drove me back to the Rankin Inlet airport, kindly stopping at the local hardware store in the way so I could pick up some of the fabulous mitts that everyone up there wore. We had lots of time because you need be at the Rankin Inlet airport only 20 minutes or so before your flight out.
But what surprised me about the article was that I learned, only then, that John is also the mayor of Rankin Inlet. And that seemed to be so typical of the place, where people are shy and unassuming and really don’t make much of a fuss about anything.
I can’t wait to return, knowing that I have so much to learn.
