A few years ago we found a 35 year old message in a bottle from my grandfather while we were out on the land.

It deepened my sense of being where I belong.

My mother wrote at the time:
August 27, 2017. We went boating 20 miles across the bay yesterday to Saarruit (place full of thin and flat rocks). Alethea Aggiuq, Jay, Anugaaq, Sandy, Anita, Pudloo, Saimaniq.

“After awhile the men came back. Our son-in-law with my lil ataata, Anugaaq were walking along a slope below the hill and found a jar with a piece of paper. He picked it up and called out to say there were names.

“He showed it to my sister to which she yelled out, it's dad's handwriting! I jumped up from the berry patch and looked to see. Indeed it was his handwriting with his name and the hunting party at the time dated, September 7, 1982.”

“Our dad had inscribed on a piece of paper their names: Annawalk (Anugaaq), our two brothers; Gou, Sandy and our sister's boyfriend's brother to write his own: Shawn.

My sister and I became emotional... as did Aggiuq. Gou would have been 18 and Sandy, 10 and dad 60.”

When Sandy saw the jar, he said he remembers (@ age 10) putting it in the water. There was more wildlife then and less people. They had caught a seal.

It was neat that my lil ataata and his ataata found it. A day of memories.

It was a peaceful, serene and calm day (kajjaanaqtuq) and it felt like our dad was with us but also had acknowledged my son-in-law and his namesake.

“Our nephew Saimaniq also caught his first aqiggiq - ptarmigan, 8 of them! He is like his ataata, helpful, empathetic, giving and kind as well as becoming a hunter. 4 or 5 families will get to eat from his catch.”

To add to my mom’s words above, my uncle Sandy told me he remembers that day my grandfather made the young boys run up to the top of the mountain where we were, to view area from above. He often wanted them to do that so they could memorize the area and know the land & water.

It was a special day and I wasn’t ready to share it back then. I wanted to keep that memory to myself for awhile, to savour it. Now I want to document it for my son to remember, that he and his father found a note from my grandfather (his namesake!) 35 years after he left it.

Here he is as a young man, with me when he was older, and one from before I was born with some of my aunts and uncles (my mom on the bottom left).