1. en-ashram-N/G
2. 24-08-2025
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Catherine – a Ray of Light in the Arctic Winter
By Cathy Graham

I hear Catherine’s roaring snowmobile outside before I see her. She bursts in the door of our rental house, a gust of Arctic air bursting in with her. 

A large Inuk woman greets me with her big grin, her cheeks rosy from the cold, her wire framed glasses all fogged up. She is dressed in an Inuit amoutik, the brightly coloured fur-trimmed winter coat the Inuit women wear with a big hood.

When I remark about her green rubber boots, she says “My feet get too hot in regular boots.” I am even more shocked when she takes them off and she has no socks.

She comes into the kitchen in bare feet and sits at the table. She opens her hood and a small dark head pops out like a kangaroo peeking out of its pouch. Catherine bends her arms behind her. Like some well-timed trapeze act, Gina grabs onto her hands and Catherine flips the baby over her shoulder and onto her lap.

Catherine quickly becomes a good friend, coming over regularly for lunch, tea and treats. She helps me navigate this strange town of Gjoa Haven on King William Island in the Arctic Ocean. Brian is working as an adult education teacher at the Arctic College helping students upgrade their math and English skills to apply for college programs. I am home with our two small boys, Rory and Eric.

I tell her about my life back in Ottawa and she tells me about hers. She is Canadian like me and yet her upbringing is so different in this harsh Arctic land on the tundra.  

Brian is eager to go hunting with some Inuit hunters. He pays some men to join them on a hunting expedition. They shoot a caribou right away and returned the same day, which was disappointing for him as he had hoped to camp out and get his money’s worth. He describes how they shot the caribou and while it was still warm, they took a knife, peeling away the fur from the skin. In between the layers, there were white parasitic grubs which they all gobbled up like candy.

His description disgusts me, but when I tell Catherine the story, her eyes light up and she smacks her lips. “Oh, they’re delicious. They taste like milk.” 

Catherine’s life is not easy raising three children in Canada’s Arctic but she never complains. Many of the Inuit women have a tough life and there are mixed families since marriage is not common and men often have kids with different women. 

One day the VHS player doesn’t work and I panic. Playing Disney and Land Before Time movies has been my survival strategy with Rory and Eric who are 4 and 2 years old. We don’t have Cable tv and only get a fuzzy CBC Arctic station with the aerial. Internet is still fairly new in the North and not available to everyone.

Catherine in her usual unflappable manner, gets a screwdriver and takes the top off the machine as I watch. She finds a wrapped hard candy that toddler Eric has pushed through the slot. Once she takes out the candy, the machine works fine. There are no repair shops in the North so the Inuit have to be clever and creative to solve problems.

Catherine helps me organize the boys’ birthday parties in November and December by inviting lots of kids and their mothers. She directs all the games and helps serve the caribou stew and my decorated cakes. The house is alive with kids and chaos but it keeps me going on those long dark days. 

The school semester goes from August to May through the harsh dark winter. The Inuit version of Christmas is very different from ours. So much for decorated trees, carol singing and family parties. Their Christmas consists of two weeks of Inuit style games of strength and endurance every night at the hall. Everyone shares potluck feasts of caribou, muskox, Scottish Banach and other treats. They do love presents though and embrace that tradition with great enthusiasm. 

By April, I’m pretty fed up with being there and long to get back to the south. When our time in the Arctic is coming to a close, Catherine jokes about how I’m probably counting down the days on the calendar. 

I am so grateful to Catherine for brightening my days and helping me navigate life in Canada’s North living among the Inuit. I still think of her now twenty-seven years later and wonder how she is.

Cathy Graham
Ottawa. 

1. en-ashram-N/G
2. 24-08-2025
4. Tweet