Goodbye, Mountains

I promised myself that I would post this rather silly moment of realization before I left, and so here I am, sharing another story about garbage. Do you recall, diligent reader, when I found that syllabic graffiti? Here is a photo to remind you.

Wow, I said. Cool! But it's probably something not very nice, because, often, graffiti isn't very nice!

Well, in the perfect crow-eating remember-not-to-assume-the-worst moment, when I was on a little walk the other day, I rounded the side of that curious little graffiti-ed structure and found this written on the other side:

Sometimes, people just want to write what a thing is and, because they live in a place where Inuktitut is spoken widely and syllabics are broadly understood, they figure, heck, this should be written in both Inuktitut and English. Sometimes, garbage-collectors need to indicate where garbage can be deposited so that it can be taken up to the dump.

A box for garbage, readers. That's what I was snapping photos of. It was something plain and innocuous and practical, but I missed the forest for the trees. Well, the garbage bin for the syllabics.

That interesting self-reflective moment is one of the things I will miss most about being in Pond Inlet, but it's something I will certainly be seeking wherever I end up next. Seeing all of the invisible things I often take for granted, with English as my first language and because I'm white and able-bodied and cisgender and all of those other privileges I try to think about but still sometimes miss, is incredible. Trying to see and dismantle privilege is at the heart of what I hope to do in the classroom and in my life.

As the light fades today, I know that this is my last evening here in Pond Inlet as part of this trip. Tomorrow, we need to be at the airport for 7am, so we're all packed and ready to head out.

It's hard to believe that I won't get to wake up and look at this vista again.

Goodbye, mountains. Goodbye, Bylot.

Goodbye, dogs singing in the distance. Goodbye, clouds across the mountains. Goodbye, sea ice. Goodbye, snowmobiles and qamutiks. Goodbye, glaciers. Goodbye, iceberg.

Goodbye, Pond Inlet, and thank you. 

Qujannamiik. ᖁᔭᓐᓇᒦᒃ.

Sunset over the iceberg on April 2nd.