Editor:
I recently attended the memorial service for Annie Aculiak, the tiny Inuk artist well-known in the community for her cards and carvings of polar bears, wolves, and igloos. For a time, she was my neighbour on Selma Park Road, and we would exchange hellos on the way to the mailbox.
Terry Coyote drummed a farewell song. The Rev. Clarence Li spoke about Annie’s childhood trauma and lingering sorrow when the sled dogs were shot by the RCMP in preparation for the government’s forced relocation of the community. It felt like completing a circle that Annie’s simple pine coffin was carried into and out of St Hilda’s by four RCMP officers in full red serge.
May we learn, remember and reconcile.
Viveca Ohm
Sechelt
