Dustin Smith enjoys selling earrings and other items of jewellery at Inuvik’s Arctic Market, but nothing brings Smith more joy than creating a dog parki.
Smith learned to sew during the Covid-19 pandemic, acquires patterns from an aunt and takes advice from her over the phone. The parkis – fur-lined jackets for dogs – were inspired by a friend.
Some have been shipped to Alaska and others to Yellowknife. The ones on display in Inuvik on Saturday would be ideal for your average wiener dog trying to survive a northern winter.
“I have a pattern for bigger dogs, I just haven’t gotten asked to make them. It’s usually the small ones,” Smith explained.
“Any style you want, I could do it.”
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When not at the market, Smith’s work can be found on Facebook.
From 2024: Inuvik designer makes jackets out of liquor store bags
The Arctic Market runs indoors for part of each year but in summer, it moves to a weekly Saturday slot on a specially constructed covered boardwalk next to the town’s welcome centre.
On National Indigenous Peoples Day, that placed the market right next to the centre of Inuvik’s celebrations as residents and tourists gathered in Chief Jim Koe Park.
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Musicians played and young athletes demonstrated Arctic sports in the park’s special events pavilion, while the Gwich’in Tribal Council staged a cookout as the threat of rain largely held off.
At one end of the boardwalk, Nolan Rainville was serving up popcorn alongside partner Gilly McNaughton.
Rainville, Anishinaabe Cree from Treaty 9 territory, has lived in Inuvik for almost the past five years. It’s McNaughton’s hometown and the two returned there near the end of 2020, though they have lived in the North “on and off for about 15 years.”
“I really, truly call the NWT home,” said Rainville.
“I’m a trained chef but this seemed like the best alternative during Covid times, you know?” he said, gesturing to the popcorn in front of him. “It’s something easy and people love popcorn. The smell is intoxicating.”
Across the boardwalk, Amanda King-Demont sat behind her King Crow Creations stall.
She has been creating earrings for a little over a year. On Saturday, her stall offered earrings that bore images of Inuvik within miniature snowglobe-style glass casings.
“I love the energy,” she said of the market on National Indigenous Peoples Day.
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“It’s a really great energy. We’ve got great weather today, which really helps, but the people have been flowing through here all morning.”
National Indigenous Peoples Day takes place on the longest weekend of the year – the solstice being on June 20 in 2025 – though that carries less meaning in Inuvik, which is so far north that the sun won’t set again until July 19 and fully dark night-time doesn’t return until mid-September.
Exploiting that, Saturday’s festivities will finish with a Midnight Sun Fun Run from 10pm.
Participants were initially planning to run either five kilometres, 10 kilometres or a half-marathon on a course that stretched from the central Midnight Sun Complex out along the highway toward Inuvik’s airport.
However, just after 7pm on Saturday, the Town of Inuvik said “aggressive bears” along that route – which have occasionally posed problems in the past – meant runners would be kept to a new course within the downtown area.
“Safety trucks will be patrolling along the route throughout the night,” the town stated.
