Shauntay Bolt loves the Nelson swimming pool.
The 14-year-old Kugluktuk resident is one of the Nunavut students who came to the Kootenays this week as part of an exchange with Nelson Waldorf school, and though there were other highlights — like hiking up Pulpit — it’s hanging out in the pool that she enjoyed most.
“In Nunavut we just have the ocean, and it’s really cold, so we go swimming maybe two of three times every summer,” Bolt told the Star, while volunteering with her classmates at Our Daily Bread soup kitchen.
“I like jumping off the diving board and going off the slide.”
The aspiring artist and writer was still wearing her admission bracelet on Monday afternoon as her Waldorf and Kugluktuk classmates helped with collecting garbage, sorted items in the Share Nelson thrift store and experienced firsthand the work being done with the street community.
It was one stop in a whirlwind experience that Bolt called “overwhelming.” And the relationships that have been created, both when the Waldorf students travelled north in February and when the Nunavut kids came south this week, she figures will be long-lasting.
“We hung out so much and got so close. After we leave we’re going to text and Snapchat and call,” said Bolt, who claims to be the best Snapchatter in the class.
“One time we sent a Snapchat that turns your face into a big orange, so you can’t see the person’s whole face, and you have to guess who it is. Most people have a really hard time and it’s so funny.”
Besides Snapchat, students have found common ground in a number of idiosyncratic interest areas. For instance, Nunavut’s Stian Kuodluak is building an electric guitar with his Nelson friend Sol Snir Shaool.
“We love the same kind of music, so that’s how we became friends,” Kuodluak said.
“We’re going to work on the design and it’s going to be so fun.”
But the thing that made the biggest impression on him was experiencing Sinixt rituals firsthand during a class excursion.
“There’s a different culture here. They’re very religious with their dancing and ceremonies. We went in this underground hut, and there was a bunch of smoke and going in circles to welcome us.”
For Ashton (Matty) Nivingalok, the highlight of his visit was getting to be a passenger in his host family’s motorcycle for a road trip out to Ymir. He loved weaving through the mountains and being surrounded by trees.
“I was thinking, ‘This is so cool, but not as cool as driving in a snowmobile,’” he said.
As far as he’s concerned, the Kootenays may have gorgeous scenery but it doesn’t compare to his home territory, where he keeps busy with hunting and fishing.
“The North is the North. I love it because that’s where my great-grandmother’s ancestors lived and I want to learn our culture and keep it going.”
And part of that will entail teaching future generations his language, Inuinnaqtun.
“I want to finish school, get a good career and become a housing maintainer just like my father. I will fix up houses.”
During the exchange Nivingalok worked on making knives with his Nelson buddy Angus Bustin, who is a blacksmith. He was excited to learn more about the trade, and during the process they became close friends.
“The insight and experience the students gained from this trip are beyond words and will stay with them for life,” Waldorf wrote in a recent blog post.
Kugluktuk is a tiny Inuit hamlet near the border of the Northwest Territories, at the mouth of the Coppermine River, on the shore of the Arctic Ocean. It’s known for its freezing dry winters, with light snowfall and a scarcity of trees.
Approximately two dozen kids participated in the exchange, which saw Waldorf students receive elder-knitted fur mittens, experience -57 C weather and participate in hunting trips where they caught a wolverine and an arctic fox. They also got the chance to try eating raw moose.
For Bolt, the most important part was getting to know the other kids. And now that they’re parting ways, she figures there will be plenty of tears.
“When the Waldorf kids left we were all crying at the airport, because we knew how much we were going to miss them. We’re going to cry even more the next time we have to say goodbye.”
For more photos and stories about the exchanges, visit nelsonwaldorf.org.
