Makivik Magazine Issue 91

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Ivakkak Celebrates its
10 th Anniversary of Racing
By Kitty Gordon
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Photos by Pierre Dunnigan
unless otherwise credited.
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Preparations began in of November 2009 for the 2010 Ivakkak dog team
race. There is much work to be done: pick a route, get all the necessary
equipment such as the banners, flags, supplies, dog food, trophies, prizes,
and so on. Most important are the masters with partners and their dog
teams. Most of the preparation work was done by Ivakkak’s first coordinator
Isabelle Dubois and by our new coordinator Jobie Epoo. They
completed a long to-do list, everything being on schedule or course. I was
in charge of updating the Ivakkak website—another task to take on, keeping
in mind the Nunavik Internet system at most times is very slow.
Two to three days prior to the departure of the race, the 16 all-Inuit
teams were flown to Quaqtaq. Teams consisted of a master, his partner,
and eight to 12 pure breed huskies. There were a total of 182 racing dogs.
They originated from Quaqtaq, Kuujjuaq, Tasiujaq, Aupaluk, Kangiqsujuaq,
Puvirnituq and Inukjuak.
The 2010 Ivakkak began on March 22 nd departing from Quaqtaq to
make its way to the final destination in Kuujjuaq, a 450-kilometre trek across
the rigorous eastern Arctic side of the Ungava Bay coast. It was a beautiful
sunny morning for the race to begin, a prime day for such an event to journey
across the white Arctic tundra. The first team took off at 9:00 AM. Each
team then followed in one-minute intervals. Once they hit the trails the
wind began to pick up, eventually developing into a storm. This storm was
a part of the reason why some some of the teams got mixed up, where they
consequentially had to overnight kilometres away from the first checkpoint.
Only five out of 16 teams made it to the first checkpoint. The following day
the remaining 11 teams travelled the 22 kilometres to meet with the rest
of the teams, support crew, coordinator and timekeepers.
The first community on their route was Kangirsuk and they had reached
it after three days of being out on the land, experiencing their first setback,
the storm that confused more than half of the teams. It was a clear
blue sky on that afternoon when they reached Kangirsuk. All teams arrived
within a little over an hour after the first 12:50 PM arrival. The community
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