Tradition, coordination, space to explore

October 20, 2012

Students in class of AVC 2013, travelled to Nain as participants on the Chinook Project. As part of the experience, the students craft various pieces of writing. No photos were submitted with this essay, photos are supplied from other trips to Nain and Postville. This essay posted anonymously.

For the Chinook Project to be successful, it relies on people in different geographical areas communicating and working together.  A project like this requires a lot of support, not only for the logistical side of things but the emotional side.  Without the support of the community and the people of Nain, it would have been an impossible task.  There had to be cooperation among volunteers in Nain as well as coordination with the other veterinarians in other provinces. 

The Inuit communities in Labrador are quite segregated from the rest of Canada—they live by different rules and have their own law system.  In 2005, there was a transfer of power from the provincial government to the newly formed Nunatsiavut government whose administrative capital is in Nain.  As outsiders going into a tight knit community with different cultural values, there is always the question:  are they going to be accepting of help from people who do not know anything about their lifestyle.  The values that people put on animals and their care can be very different from one community to the next.  Would the people of Nain agree with our views?  At the Atlantic Veterinary College (AVC), we assume that everyone accepts that dogs should be vaccinated and spayed/neutered and feel that animals should be considered members of the family.  In Nain, and many other communities, it is not uncommon for the dogs to have never stepped a foot inside the house.  How could we incorporate some of our standards while remaining sensitive to local traditions?

The Inuit community have relied on the dog for thousands of years as a means of transportation and for hunting purposes.  The impression I received, however, was that the indigenous people’s view of the dog has changed.  The dog has become much less crucial since the invention of the snowmobile and automobile.  Some of the other cultural aspects have been lost with time, as many people no longer speak the traditional Inuttitut language.  The hope was not only that the Chinook project would bring medical attention to the dogs of Nain, but also to foster relationships between people and their dogs.  We were worried that some of our ideas would not be well received.  

A great help in getting through to the community was having the local volunteers.  Without their familiarity with the people, I think the residents would not have trusted us as much.  Having Tammy and Paul, our resident tour guide, working with us was invaluable.  Tammy not only knew everyone in the community by name she also knew where everyone lived.  This was a huge help as she was able to pick up dogs for surgery and drop them off at the end of the day.  I feel the townspeople were relieved to have a familiar face when they were dropping their animal off for surgery.  

The town of Nain already had trust issues with animal care teams as a few years previously, a team had arranged to come up and do a spay neuter clinic and then cancelled the trip shortly before they were to arrive.  Many people had appointments already and were truly disappointed, so there was some skepticism as to whether we would make the journey.  It helped that everything was very well organized, we already had 40 surgeries booked before we even arrived.  Having the townspeople behind us was great – but we did have some big expectations to fill.

To our enjoyment we were welcomed with open arms.  We had a wonderful tour guide and clinic organizer Paul, a longtime Nain resident, who attended to our every need.  He drove us wherever we needed to go, arranged our meals, got us any supplies and set up the entire clinic.  He was there every step of the way from talking to clients to restraining dogs to getting us more surgical lighting.  We really could not have done it without him. Tammy, who was mentioned before, was crucial to the success of the Chinook team.   She not only volunteered her own time but also her mother fed us every meal during our stay in Nain.  We rarely had time to sit down and eat so she hand delivered the food to the clinic for us.  Tammy’s husband Terry also had a big impact on us during our stay in Labrador.  He took us on a wonderful boat trip-  that proved to be the only day we got to enjoy the land since the clinic duties took up most of our time. Although touring was not the intention of our visit, it was a wonderful addition to our trip up north, and gave us a deeper appreciation for the way of life in Nain.

Overall, this event was only a success because of everyone involved.  We had the emotional and logistical support that was needed to get the most out of our visit, and the dogs of Nain benefitted greatly.