Last night an Inuit sculptor named Toona came to the hotel to see Terry the chef. Me and Toona had a great eyelocker when he first got in the door. We looked at his leg together and then back up to eye level. We acknowledged that he was communicating leg pain. Then he folded into a small pile on the floor. I've never seen legs go from parallel-upright to flat-horizontal. But that's how Toona sat, maybe a foot and a half tall once he collapsed his table-legs.
Today, on my walk back from the college, I saw a slumped, canvas covered shape in the distance. I see in shapes. I have bad eyes. Either way, because of my eyes or because he was out of the hotel context, I didn't recognize the shape as Toona. But I thought it might be human.
Not afraid to meet people, I gestured towards it, or looked, or something. A hand went up. I walked over. "Quinauvit," I said. "What's your name?" An older Inuk man looked up. But he didn't seem to hear, or he didn't know I was trying to talk Inuktitut, or I dunno maybe he recognized me - "I'm Aron," I said extremely brightly. I clued in. That's Toona from last night. "Hey, Toona! We met last night!"
All teeth and raised eyebrows, I motioned to my video camera. Toona posed slightly for a picture with the stone he was carving into a bear. He kept pausing, thinking the picture was done, or wondering what I was doing, why I still had a camera pointed at him.
Keep going, I motioned. Keep going with the carving.
This may be the beginning of something, this filming of Toona. I could see bringing Terry the chef's boxes of carvings down to Toronto. (Terry: Excellent inter-personal skills and a carving acquisition problem.) I could show Toona's carvings, tell his story, show some video. It'd be a great night. Or maybe a day thing. Get all kid-friendly. Playing along with the video would be some music by Loscil or even Lazersuze.
The Arctic has the ability to erase a lot. People, places, thoughts. It can wipe out vegans. It turns them into sealskin coat buyers; really, I've seen that. The Arctic is always present. Like the sun to the Earth. You go around it at the most fundamental level. It all translates as awe.
And therefore the people here, especially elders and artists who've grown up here, resonate a history so awesome and so palpable that you might think you've met Nature itself when you say hello.
Toona's carvings are raw and soulful. That's why Terry's right on with his reverence for Toona's work. Terry's feelin' the vibe. The ancient. That's what I'll try to communicate back in Toronto if there's a little show. But first, let's meet Toona.
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