Have you ever wondered about the northern lights? Science explains them as collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun that enter the earth's atmosphere. However, Michael Kusugak has a much more interesting explanation for this amazing phenomenon.
"The Inuit believe that when we die, our souls go up into the skies," explained the 65-year-old Nunavut author and storyteller. "The dead still want to have a good time in the heavens, and so they play soccer. That is what the northern lights are, the souls of our ancestors playing soccer in the heavens."
Kusugak grew up living a very traditional Inuit lifestyle. His family travelled by dogsled team, lived in igloos in the winter and tents in the summer. They fished, and hunted caribou, seals, whales, walrus and polar bears.
"I was born in 1948 and in those days we were still nomadic," said Kusugak. While the family called Repulse Bay home, a community on the north end of the Hudson Bay, they spent a good deal of the winter travelling throughout the North, following the animals they were hunting. In the spring they would return to Repulse Bay where the fishing was good, and where the large Hudson's Bay Company trading post in that community would hire his parents for various jobs, such as cleaning the furs to be shipped away.
When the family was on the move, they often travelled as a full family unit, along with Kusugak's grandparents. "Every night, I would ask my grandmother to tell me stories," he said. The stories his grandmother told him were hundreds, even thousands of years old. They were stories that Inuit have told all across the North, from Siberia to Alaska to northern Canada and even into Greenland. "These were the stories I grew up with," Kusugak said.
Eventually, the family ended up on Rankin Inlet, 500 kilmetres north of Churchill, Man., where Kusugak would spend much of his life. As an adult, he became a fixed-wing and helicopter pilot, but found that jobs were difficult to come by after the end of the Vietnam War, when all of the military pilots returned home to North America. He went on to work for the governments of Canada and the Northwest Territories for several years, but his life would soon take an unusual turn when an innocent moment of storytelling with his children would open the door to a new career.
"The children were still little, but they were growing up," said Kusugak. "They loved to be read to, but I realized at that moment that there wasn't a single book about us, Inuit people, or about the North or even really about Canadian kids at that time. So I told them a story of my own." His children suggested that he write it down, and he did.
That was somewhere around 1986, he recalls. Shortly thereafter, children's author Robert Munsch came to visit Rankin Inlet and stayed with Kusugak and his family. Kusugak read Munsch the story he had written, and the two of them soon began a collaboration that would eventually became the popular children's book, A Promise is a Promise. "That was the first of 10 books so far," said Kusugak.
Now, many years later, Kusugak is a full-time storyteller. Although he and his wife Gerry Pflueger have now reached the age of retirement, they appear to have no intentions of slowing down just yet. "Storytelling is one of those jobs that you get better at as you get older," said Kusugak.
The couple now travels all around the world. While he shares his stories, Pflueger shares items and pictures that represent the North and the Inuit way of life.
"She has a suitcase full of stuff from up north," said Kusugak. "She dresses the kids up in clothing from the North. There are furry stuffed animals she uses to show kids about northern wildlife. They all have a great time."
In 2010 the couple made the difficult decision to leave their Rankin Inlet home and move to Vancouver Island. "It was so expensive to travel. It cost $3,000 every time we needed to fly out of Rankin Inlet," said Kusugak. "We decided that while we are working we will live down south." He added that they would probably move back when they eventually decide to put their current lifestyle to rest.
Fortunately for Albertans, that will not be for a while. Kusugak will be touring through the province beginning in March and is looking forward to it. "I have spent a lot of time in Alberta and actually lived in the Water Valley area for a year," he said. "My wife was living there when I met her and I moved to be with her. When my granddaughter was born we moved back to Rankin Inlet."
He always enjoys coming back to the area, though, and will be at the Innisfail library on March 22, between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., sharing his stories about growing up in the Great White North.
"I usually speak about my childhood, and tell one traditional Inuit legend, partially in English and partially in Inuit," said Kusugak. He will also talk about his books and how they came to be, and will finish off his session with a piece of string. "There are a lot of wonderful string games we play, some that were taught to me by my grandmother," he said.
Pflueger will also be at the library with her suitcase of furry treasures. In all, the experience promises to be a fascinating glimpse into a place and a lifestyle that few people know much about.
"These are stories that are passed down from generation to generation," said Kusugak. "Inuit all through the North speak the same language and share the same stories. I am lucky to have the chance to share these stories around the world."
