The Strength of an Age

SUMMER 2026 | Author: Eldred Allen

Eldred Allen portrays the strengths of six Elders in Rigolet, Nunatsiavut, who stay active and involved in daily community life by
working in the woods, hauling firewood, baking berry pies, woodworking, building cabins and walking home with their groceries.

These Elders, they’re 60, 70, 80 years old. They’re still collecting their own firewood. They’re maintaining wood stoves and fires in their homes. They’re living on their own. They’re cooking their own food. They’re traveling around on snowmobile. They’re shoveling snow. They’re fully involved still in the community, in our way of life. Their inclusion in community, their capabilities, it’s keeping them young, it’s keeping them vibrant.”

(Photo above: the author’s father Max Allen)

Jean Tooktoshina

“Jean was my kindergarten teacher when I was in school and she’s our neighbour. She lives just up the road, and her husband passed away,
probably less than 10 years ago. She’s an elderly woman herself, but we’ll get a lot of snow, and you’ll look up and she’s out with a snow
blower, blowing snow. I was going by one day and she was out picking up these chunks of wood and stacking them in her shed on her own.
It was a pretty nice pile of firewood that she was working her way through. Even though it’s hard, heavy work, she still fully does it all on
her own. She’s also tending to her bikes, she’s tending to her snowmobiles, her truck. It’s amazing to see this strength and endurance.”

Oz Allen

“We were all at our winter cabin last winter. We travelled up on snowmobile as a group to cut firewood. When we were coming
back, after everybody had all their firewood cut, I came across Oz, my uncle, stopped in a different location cutting his firewood.
He’s in his late 70s there, but is still sawing those trees down, carrying them out to the komatik, sawing them up and piling them
in the komatik box. And then, hauling them back to the community, which is probably 50 kilometres away.”

Ralph Shiwak

“Ralph, he’s the type of person who doesn’t like to have his picture taken. But I saw him out walking one day and I asked him. He had recently had a
medical procedure, but in this image here, he walked to the store to go grocery shopping on his own. He’s right in the middle of town, passing by
the post office and walking back to his house. He was all in shadow, but just his face was still lit up by a little bit of sunshine and he was smiling.”

Greta Michelin

“Every year my grandmother would make pies for her kids at Christmas. Even though in that image she’s 70‐odd years old, she was still producing around
15 pies. There’s a slice of bakeapple pie on the plate and she’s making a redberry pie. I knew it was something I had to capture because she was not going
to be able to do that much longer. To know my 70‐year‐old grandmother was able to stand up for three or four hours rolling dough, making jam, producing
pies for her kids, it was special.”

William “Beatle” Sheppard

“Beatle is building his own cabin from scratch, a log cabin. It’s small and cozy and not far from the community, but it’s far enough away
that they can get out of town and access it in the summer and in the winter and him and his wife just go up and they can relax and spend
time outside. There are cabins all around the community. When you’re unconnected, you’re spending time with family, you’re hunting,
you’re fishing. You can see fully white hair and you know he’s an elderly gentleman, but still up and practicing the lifestyle and finishing off
his own cabin.”