The Muskrat Jamboree

This past weekend was the annual Muskrat Jamboree in Inuvik. The festivities started out on Friday night with the opening ceremonies. This began with the crowning of the Jamboree King and Queen and the community feast. The community feast included a lot of Eskimo doughnuts and a lot of traditional meats, all made by community members and brought to share among the community. After the feast, there were some hilarious games, one of which I entered with a few other people. You know the game where you pass an orange between people via your neck? Picture it, and picture my team coming last, the only team still standing, and looking like we are literally making out with one another in a rushed sort of way. Too funny. There were a ton of other funny games, and after the games were done the drumming and dancing commenced. It was a really good dose of culture, the melodic rhythm of the drums beating along with the matching dance beats was fantastic. The dancing is definitely interesting, there are many moves that represent different things, like animals, canoeing, etc. The first picture above depicts the backs of the outfits that the dancers were wearing. After the drum dancing, there was a jigging competition complete with a three man band - fiddle included. Next was the old timers dance. All and all, a good first day of Jamboree.

The next two days were full of activities - dog mushing, plank walking, log sawing, nail driving, ski-doo racing, BINGO, honey bag hockey, harpoon throwing, tea boiling, bush skills, and muskrat skinning. All of these were held down on the river. I was up close for the muskrat skinning, which was hard to watch, and my photos sucked, because I was shooting into the sun, but there is one above of the ladies doing the competition. It was amazing how easy they made it look. Poor lil' muskrats. There were always tents selling chili, moose stew, muktuk (beluga), hamburgers and of course, Eskimo doughnuts down at the river. Last night was the talent show in the school gym, which had some gems, but lasted forever. My favourite part was probably the fiddle competition.

Activities continue today, the last day of the Jamboree activities, and most of the town has no work or school, as it is considered a civic holiday. Although DFO does not honour this civic holiday (booo) I'm still taking the afternoon off, because I've worked up a bunch of overtime.

I also went out a couple times this weekend with friends. I'm still really loving all the nice people that I have had a chance to meet up here. Do you ever get going in such a good situation that you just don't want it to end? But you know that it has too, it will, and soon? I feel exactly that way, I have something good going here...