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And now, to the Yukon…
Flying to Whitehorse this afternoon. We have had such an incredible adventure north of 60 in the NWT (with very little time to document all the sights and sounds and anecdotes….so I’m going to jot down a few things here before getting on the next flight). In Yellowknife, our most urban destination, the most wonderful reception at the sold-out Northern Arts and Culture Centre. The NACC sponsored our five community tour: each year they take a few lucky artists around the territory to visit small communities who don’t have a lot of access to arts and culture from away. With the fabulous new NACC director Marie Coderre playing our tour manager and guide, we got to see places that not many Canadians every get to visit. Inuvik, our most northerly destination, was unseasonably warm at 5 degrees, and made for super muddy boots; like the southerns we are, we brought our parkas and boots – but haven’t really needed them yet (although apparently it’s below zero in Whitehorse, so they will finally get some use!). Saw the famous Igloo Church, and the Inuvik Community Greenhouse (a personal highlight of the trip – the most Northerly greenhouse in Canada is the size of a hockey arena… because it used to be a hockey arena, attached to the former Residential school, which was torn down in 1998. Talk about a creative and inspiring transformation).
We performed at the local high school (where we got to hear the National Anthem sung in Inuvialuit, and added bonus, I saw one of the students from last year’s Students on Ice trip) and had a wonderful evening show at the Midnight Sun Complex. Speaking of midnight sun, I expected it might be quite dark already at this time of year, but although the sun rose late (around 10 am) it didn’t set until around 8:30 pm, so there were plenty of beautiful daylight hours full of long, slanty shadows, before the Aurora Borealis that greeted us later that night after our show.