Carol Arey and Jonas Meyook Jr. © Nellie Arey
An Interview with Nellie Arey
NELLIE AREY HAS LIVED IN AKLAVIK SINCE 1959 and has raised her family there, as well as continuing to make a subsistence living on the land. Nellie is here to tell some of what it was like growing up on the land, teaching her kids and grandkids the way her family taught her. This interview was special for me, as I am one of her grandkids, and I heard stories that were new even to me.
Nellie: I grew up in the coast (near Herschel Island), but I moved to Aklavik In 1959 after my dadak (grandpa) passed away. I stayed down there for two years after he passed away, but I couldn’t hack it anymore so I moved to Aklavik. We were in and out, never really stay in town. My aunty Diva, somebody picked her up, bring her back to town and marry her. It was good.
Left: Tom Arey, Sarah Mcleod, and Carol Arey. © Nellie Arey
Kayla: Did you travel lots with hunting and trapping?
Nellie: Oh yeah when I was growing up I travel a lot. You know we don’t sit around, morning to night. We do lots of travelling and lots of work. Summertime we do lots of walking, because we always go to Firth River from Yuuġuyaq…. Right between Nunaluk and Komakuk, that’s where we always start walking from.
Kayla: What about your dog teams?
Nellie: When we used to walk in summertime, our dogs have packsacks. Every dog have packsacks. At least 15 dogs we used to have. That time, you know dogs are big. They used to pack, and people used to pack. Fall time before August, we go back down to Yuuġuyaq. We go to Ptarmigan Bay, that’s where I really winter. But we go down to Herschel to hunt seals. We used seal net and we fished there. Before freeze‐up, from Herschel back to Ptarmigan Bay. And we do another fishing and put them in the icehouse. We do hunting fall time like birds, and seals and fish, caribou, whatever we could catch. And these two, a couple used to stay there, Katie and Roland. We used to hunt for them, help them out. Their houses are still up down there, across the lagoon from Ptarmigan Bay.
Before winter, that’s when we really have to work. We do hunting, we pile wood for wintertime. We always pile wood lots of places, so we don’t have to look for them in the snow. And fall time, when the ice freeze up, we used to go up in the lakes and go saw blocks of ice, and we start hauling ice before the lakes get too thick.
Kayla: Were mom and them going to school?
Nellie: Yea your dadak make sure they do their paperwork. He make sure they get to school and do paperwork. And Moses and Titus were his right‐hand man; Both of them.
Kayla: When mom and uncles were in school, were you still hunting lots or mostly buying food from the store?
Nellie: We get some stuff from stores, and we go out trapping. Most of the time we get rabbits, muskrats, lynx, and fish. We used to pack everything when my boys was small, but they help little bit. There was a house at Taylor’s, I used to stay with my boys and your mom, Cindy and Margo. One time I went to go look at traps in evening. I gassed up the gas lamp and showed those girls how to light it. They were going to keep the house warm.
Larry Arey, Nellie Arey and other family members. © Nellie Arey
I took Carol. In the dark, Cindy was trying to change Larry’s pamper. He anaq (pooped) and it dropped all over the floor just like little balls [laughs]. Cindy said she was picking something soft in the dark and told Margo she should light the gas lamp. They start to light it, those crazy girls, without putting matches on it they open it first. You know when you pump it, if you open it the gas is going to go out. Those girls been doing that, and they throw the gas lamp outside [laughs].
They were living in the dark. As soon as I got home, I run in to light the gas lamp, Cindy told me:
‘Nellie, there might be anaq in the floor, I was grabbing them with my hands.’ I said ‘just wait I’m going to light the gas lamp where’s it?’
‘Outside!’
‘What?!’ [laughs]. So I went out and picked it up. I had to change the mantle, wipe it out, and light it. And Cindy start collecting anaq from the floor. Margo had my Boy in her back, she was packing him. Oh my gosh [laughs] I should mention it to Cindy one of these days. We used to be good. We used to have a good life, no dope, no booze all the time.
Tom Arey. © Nellie Arey
When [the kids] were out of school I used to take them out. Most weekends, go trap, get out of town. I used to don’t like living in town. After they got ski‐doo, we used ski‐doos, no more dog team. Your dadak still had dog team. Your mom used to run the dogs most of the time. Your dadak had no time and he was fire chief. Ronald Storr used to help him. And he used to come to Running River all the time.
Kayla: What you needed to do most back then? Was it getting the kids to school? Hunting and trapping?
Nellie: We make sure they go to school. And I do lots of sewing, parkies, mukluks for my kids. If I wanted to go out on the land with them I had to sign papers from the school. They have homework all the time.
Kayla: What’s your favorite memory from that time?
Nellie: Favorite memories, you know, you don’t forget anything. Your family is most important. I just enjoy taking my kids out and teaching them what to do, same as my grandkids.
