Shelley

I was born in 1961 in Kingston. We moved away briefly and then came back. When we returned, my dad didn’t have a job, so he went back to school, and my mom went to work in Ottawa, so we got to live with our grandparents in Quebec. My grandfather was a barber, and his shop was right attached to the living room, so we could see him at any time. When we came back to Kingston, we moved to Rideau Heights in Kingston, Ontario and I stayed there through university before moving to Hay River in the Northwest Territories. Finally, I moved to Baffin Island, where I was a teacher for 20 years.

There were only 400 people in the community. I taught primary junior for about 10 years and then spent around 10 years teaching junior high. I was always very passionate about teaching and thought that I would teach on a native reserve. I ended up working with the Inuit, so it’s a bit different, but I really enjoyed working in a different culture and learning their traditions and language. It was really rewarding. Some of them still live their traditional lifestyle and still go hunting, fishing, and gathering for their livelihood. It’s just a very humble lifestyle.

I remember there was a mother polar bear and her cubs across the bay. We would watch them, and as they went from hill to hill, they would disappear and reappear. It was on one side of the school, so all of the kids would run over to that side of the building, and the windows would be shaking. I always thought that if just one more person leaned up against the glass, we’d all fall.

When you live in a small, close-knit community, you have to learn more about boundaries, and you have to immerse yourself in the community. I’ve always been very crafty. I’ve embroidered and beaded, and I tried to do some local crafts and sewing with women in the community, like traditional clothing and craft items.

I’m wearing a bracelet today that I made, and it says “peace.” My son’s name is Saimaniq, which means peace in Inuktitut. My children are Inuit. My daughter is 29, and she lives around the corner from me, and my son is 28 and lives with me, so we’re very close still. We don’t have a big family here, so we stick together.

I have another bracelet on today that says, “Examine everything, keep the best.” I’ve always tried everything. I tried different foods, I tried different games, dancing, things like that. I think the more experiences in life you can get, the better. I encourage people to take a few educated risks and just immerse themselves in life. The other thing is that family is really important to me. My life is really about my family. I’ve had an extraordinary life and enjoyed it.