High Rise Diaries: Arrival Tropes

Our team met up in Vancouver to make the trip North. Jesse and Gen came up from southern California and I took the ferry from Victoria where I was attending a conference. We were loaded down with three push carts worth of luggage. Most of it is camera equipment, but my shoe addiction didn’t help matters. We flew through Edmonton and on to Yellowknife on West Jet. When I first lived in the North (2003), there were fewer air carriers that flew this route. The price has come down substantially and we had far more options than I was used to.  Once in Yellowknife we took the requisite airport Polar Bear photo, although Jesse put an infrastructural spin on it. This prompted a bit of a series of polar bear/ infrastructure images.

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We were very kindly hosted in YK by Sophie and Kelly. Sophie and I taught together in Aklavik and Hay River. Kelly was a Special Needs Assistant at Chief Sunrise school before they both moved to the capital for Sophie to take a position in the Minister of Education’s office. We spent the afternoon taking Gen on a whirlwind tour of town and managed to squeeze in meals at both the Wildcat Cafe, Bullocks and the Gold Range.

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I was most amazed at the Niven Lake development. Essentially, very large archi-homes and some more usual modular builds on one of the town’s many lakes. It changes so many of the sight lines in town and points to some significant changes in the make up and tastes of Yellowknife dwellers.

Before leaving we stopped in to the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre to look at the exhibits. There was a retrospective of a settler photographer’s work and an incredible collection of carvings by Inuvialuit artist Abraham Anghik Ruben. Our schedules happened to align with another research team we admire and we managed to meet them for lunch to talk about our work. If you haven’t seen what the Abandoned Mines team are up to in Dettah and the environs, I highly recommend you do.

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The drive around the lake is one of my favourites in the world. The bumpy patch between Yellowknife and Behchokò means you have to stay attentive but you are rewarded with vast boreal forest and stunning lake views. Last summer there were extensive forest fires. The highway has to be closed several times as smoke reduced visibility to 0. It was a very ho and smoky summer. The aftermath of forest fires includes the prime conditions for the growth of much coveted morel mushrooms. The ministry of Industry, Tourism and Investment put out calls to the non-northern public to come and harvest mushrooms (I will hold my tongue on this matter for now). Along the highway we saw a number of encampments and young people in rubber boots touting plastic buckets off to find their lots. Early reports say the the gatherers have arrived too soon and have been disappointed. At the gas station at Fort Providence, gatherers stocked up on snacks. The smell of campfire was unmistakable. We bought 4$ sodas and were on our way.

A big part of our project is installing cameras on the roof of the town’s lone high rise building. It is convenient that we have been given an apartment on the top floor where we can have faster access to the roof. The apartment faces the river and I am surprised at how completely different this feels than the when I was facing west on the 7th floor some five years ago. The vistas almost seem unrelated. One is endless forest and running river. The other was railway, downtown traffic, industrial units and fuel barrels. We unpacked and settled in for our stay. I already worry we will be gone too soon.