Introduction-E

Let me get back to your childhood. Were church services held outside
when you were in an outpost camp?
Pauloosie: We’d be in tents and when the weather was good, we’d be outside. But if the
weather was not very good we wouldn’t be outside. Tents or qammat (sod houses) that
were the biggest would be chosen for the service.
In winter would the service be held in the qammaq?
Pauloosie: Yes. Nowadays it would be held in a house. Before there were houses it
would be held in a qammaq.
Back then, would everybody in the community attend the service?
Pauloosie: A larger majority of the community would attend compared to today. There
didn’t used to be large communities like today. At the time, it felt like there were many
people, because of the way of life. It wasn’t like today at all.
On Sundays, were the services held at 11 o’clock like today?
Pauloosie: Yes, I know that the time has always been set like this, in the morning and
evening.
Church services were only held on Sundays back then?
Pauloosie: Yes, especially when there were not always ministers. We went mostly on
Sundays, but when there started to be Inuit ministers in Pangniqtuuq, it was decided
that we could gather for church even if it wasn’t Sunday.
On Sundays, what did you do? Were you supposed to abstain from
doing certain things? Today, it seems like anybody can do anything
even on Sundays.
Pauloosie: On Sundays in the communities, there didn’t seem to be much noise. We
were not supposed to go hunting on Sundays unless we were out of food. We weren’t
allowed to run around as children on Sundays.
Did these rules apply for the whole day?
Pauloosie: Yes.
Life Stories – Pauloosie Angmarlik 109