IN MY WORDS BY AARON LIGHTSTONE


Jaffa Road Travels North Award-winning band sings in Hebrew in the Land of the Midnight Sun


When we first got together to create the Jewish/ Middle-Eastern inspired music of Jaffa Road, it never occurred to me that our music might take us on tour to a remote Inuit community north of the Arctic Circle, but that is exactly what happened last summer. As a band, we had the incredible oppor-


tunity to tour Nunavut, Canada’s newest ter- ritory. Tis was an unusual and exceptional experience for a group of touring musicians from southern Canada. Nunavut is the size of Western Europe with


a population of only 30,000 people, mostly Inuit, making it one of the most sparsely pop- ulated habitable regions of the planet. Isolated from the rest of Canada, it’s accessible only by plane (or by boat during the two months that the sea ice is melted). Tere are no roads to Nunavut and no roads within it. Air travel is required between hamlets. Te scenery is incredible and incredibly varied. In summer, the 24 hours of daylight provide ample oppor- tunity to enjoy the natural beauty of the land. We were invited to the north to play at two


very interesting and exciting arts festivals: the annual Alainait (Inuktitut for celebrate) Fes- tival in Iqaluit, Nunavut’s capital, and the in- augural Rocking Walrus Festival in Igloolik. Alainait is a well-established festival and


brings a number of established Canadian bands and international acts from Polar Re- gions. Te festival also featured musicians, visual artists, films and filmmakers from all over Nunavut and other Northern regions. As for Igloolik, it is oſten referred to as one of the most traditional Inuit hamlets and the folks there did a great job of putting together their first arts festival. Besides Jaffa Road, the other “Southern” act was the Funky Mamas, a five piece, all women’s group of children’s music performers. Traveling and performing at these festivals


was exceptional in many ways. In both places it was a thrill to see people so interested and excited about our music. Other world music bands have played the festival in Iqaluit, but in both places our music seemed pretty new and exciting, especially in Igloolik, where all of the other live music seemed to be either country gospel, hard rock or traditional Inuit singing and drumming.


Photo courtesy Jaffa Road Our time in Iqaluit included a Canada


We were invited to the north to play at the Alainait Festival in Nunavut’s capital and the Rocking Walrus Festival in Igloolik


Day performance, teaching a workshop, a collaborative performance with all of the other visiting artists, bonfires on the tundra under the midnight sun, exceptional food, hanging out with many new friends, an ap- pearance on Nunavut CBC Radio, an adven- turous hike, site seeing, house parties and a visit to a Jewish/Inuit fishing camp. Yes, a Jewish/Inuit fishing camp! Before


leaving Toronto our lead vocalist, Aviva Chernick, received an e-mail from a gentle- man named Kalman, a friend of a friend. Kalman is from Montreal, but he and his wife Susan live in her native Nunavut. He of- fered to meet us at the airport. He did just that, taking us on a drive only 10 minutes out of town to the incredibly scenic Silvia Grinnell River Territorial Park, where his wife’s family owns a traditional fishing camp on the river bank. We hiked, sampled Arctic char and spent time with Kalman, Susan and their family. Te land of the midnight sun is not just


some poetic cliché. Igloolik (a more than two hour flight northwest of Iqaluit) is above the


Arctic Circle. Here, the sun gets low in the sky at night and creates long shadows, but for three or four summer months it remains up in the sky without setting at all. Into the wee hours, we enjoyed hiking, all night square dancing and pleasant walks around town. Despite its flat, rocky, dusty, barren terrain, there was something strikingly beautiful about Igloolik. In many ways, it reminded me of the Judean desert. Even the flight was stunning, as we watched the ocean morph to sea ice from the air. A highlight of Igloolik was a tour that end-


ed on the shore of a still frozen ocean. A local Inuit family brought a freshly caught seal over to our group. I was amazed at how quickly and efficiently they prepared it for eating. I must admit that the pungent and fishy flavour of raw seal meat was unappealing, but I was very grateful that I had the opportunity to taste it. It gave us an appreciation of more than 4,000 years of Inuit life in an almost permanently frozen and barren landscape.


fn Aaron Lightstone is the oud and guitar


player for the multi-award winning world music band Jaffa Road.


Winter 2011 friday night 15


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